sesame street : a space age approach to education for
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Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014
1-1-1973
Sesame Street : a space age approach to education for space age Sesame Street : a space age approach to education for space age
children. children.
Loretta. Long University of Massachusetts Amherst
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© 1974
LORETTA MOORE LONG
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
SESAME STREET: A SPACE AGE APPROACH TOEDUCATION FOR SPACE AGE CHILDREN
A Dissertation Presented
By
LORETTA MOORE LONG
Submitted to the Graduate School of the
University of Massachusetts
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
MAJOR SUBJECT: Education
August 1973
StlSAME STREET: A SPACE AGE APPROACH TOEDUCATION FOR SPACE AGE CHILDREN
A Dissertation
LORETTA MOORE LONG
Approved as to Style and Content:
Prof. Nat Rutstein, Chairman
Dr. Bob Suzuki, Member
Dwight W. Allen, Dean
August 1973
DEDICATED
To The
"Sesame Seeds"
The Children Who Love So Totally
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I'd like to thank my committee tor their support, love and willingness
to be helpful to me throughout this project. Nat Rutstein, Atron Gentry and Bob
Suzuki, were very helpful and supportive; Norma Jean Anderson's special kind
of guidance could not be duplicated by anyone else; for in my mind she's my
foster mother.
I must also thank the following people who went out of their way to be
helpful just because I said -- Help! —
Cleo AbrahamTony Best
Ed Carpenter
Jim ComerEvelyn Davis
Lu Horne
Joyce Johnson
Peter Nolan
Chet Pierce
Vivian Riley
For the energy and intelligence with which they typed my work I’d like
to thank Angela Aguiar, Debbie Randolph, and especially Pauline Ashby, who
"hung in" until the end.
Finally, I thank God for my parents, Verle and Marjorie Moore, upon
whose shoulders I stood to reach my present educational height, my husband the
famous Peter Long who believed I could do it, and all of those people who
"Zapped" me with so much love and support that I couldn't fail.
v
SESAME STREET: A SPACE AGE APPROACH TO EDUCATION FOR
SPACE AGE CHILDREN
(August 1973)
LORETTA MOORE LONG
B. A. - Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo
Directed by : Professor Nat Rutstein
ABSTRACT
An incalculable waste of human potential occurs because educators do
not educate children soon enough or with the most modern technology. In
addition, all children are not educated equally. The Black and minority and
inner city children, due to their different environments and low socio-economic
class, start school behind their White counterparts and rapidly fall further
behind, their self respect and ambition shattered by school norms totally alien
to their backgrounds. This dissertation examines the television program
’’Sesame Street” as a model for educating children sooner and with a modern
technology, and for combatting the educational racism that destroys Black and
minority children.
It first examines three problems: when do children start learning?
What shape should education take to prepare children for the accelerating change
and explosive technological growth of the 21st Century? Why should educators
vi
intervene in a child’s environment, particularly the inner city environment,
to enrich it and give the child ’’survival skills” for what he will face in school?
It then examines the success of ’’Sesame Street” in teaching a broad
spectrum of children the simple cognitive skills they need for school. But
because knowledge of simple cognitive skills will not completely eradicate the
substantial differences between low socio-economic class children and higher
socio-economic class children, ’’Sesame Street” has incorporated a "hidden
curriculum” that is focused on affective learning. It is the hidden curriculum
that seeks to bolster the Black and minority child's self respect and to portray
the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural world into which both majority and minority
child are growing. The conscious devices—an inner city neighborhood, an
integrated cast, an equal role for all children in solving problems—used to achieve
this goal are discussed. Because affective learning is generally untestable,
concrete responses and examples of effectiveness are given.
The dissertation then reports on the activities of the Children's Television
Workshop’s Community Education Division. These activities are reported to
show how the program is brought to those children who need it most and how the
effect of the program of children is optimized. It then proposes a "Sesame
Street Mothers' Program, which would train mothers on how best to use "Sesame
Street. " Specific program features and their rationale are discussed as
suggestions on how to take the mystique out of teaching a child.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION ....
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABSTRACT
LIST OF TABLES . .
CHAPTER Page
I INTRODUCTION 1
Statement of the Problem
Purpose of the Study
Objectives of the Study
Organization of the Study
II KINDERGARTEN—TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE 12
Young Children Can Learn
What Shape for Education
The Space Age Child
TV Babies
Why Must Educators Intervene
III HOW SESAME STREET ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT
EDUCATIONAL RACISM. 56
It Works
!
The Measurement Instrument and Analysis
Hidden Curriculum
Raising Self Image
Racial Tolerance
Teachers’ Attitudes
The Role of Love on Sesame Street
Summary
viii
CHAPTER Page
IV THE COMMUNITY EDUCATION DIVISION 95
CED's Activities in Urban CentersCED's Activities in Appalachia
Delonwisco Education Project
Jackson, Mississippi Project
San Antonio Project
New York Project
CED's Other Activities
Summary
V SESAME STREET MOTHERS' SHOW. 112
Introduction
Elements of the ShowLength
Time of Broadcast
General Structure
Setting
Experts
Panel of Mothers
Short Dramatizations
Interviews and Documentary Clips
Segments Dealing with the Day's Show
Other Features
Funding
Summary
FOOTNOTES . . .
BIBLIOGRAPHY .
APPENDICES. . .
130
139
147
ix
LIST OF TABLES
TablePage
I Number of Hours Viewed Per Week By Age 24
II Characteristics of the Sample 26
III Favorite Program Categories 28
IV Levels of Identification for Characters 29
V Percentage of Children Not in School 52
VI Excerpt from Attention Levels of Segmentsof Show #167 71
VII Characterizations of Blacks in Drama 78
x
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The writer is an ex-teacher who is currently a television actress-singer,
who plays a nurse on the popular children's show, "Sesame Street.
"
Does that sound confusing?
Sometimes it's even confusing to me, especially when 1 am asked if
I'm an actress or an educator. One thing I am not confused about is the fact
that preschool children of today are not only brighter than their parents were
at a comparable age, but also have different educational needs. They need to
be educated sooner and in a different manner than any prior generation. The
children today in the three-to-five year old age group must be educated to be
more creative and flexible than ever before simply because of the demands of the
space age into which they were born.
We, as educators, must take the initiative in finding methods to up-
grade our educational techniques to keep education in step with the vast
technological advances of other fields. There is no reason why the same
technology that puts men on the moon cannot be utilized to teach Johnny to read.
It is imperative that the educators of today equip these citizens of the
21st Century for their future, which may well include space travel, developing
2
totally new lifestyles, and working in occupations that we have not even
envisioned. These babies of ours are growing up in a society which is advancing
so rapidly technologically that they may have to be trained and retrained several
times in their lives in order to remain employable.
Outmoded educational techniques must be thrown out and replaced by
educational practices that will better prepare the children to become creative,
flexible and humanistic adults, equipped to solve some of the tremendous
problems we are leaving to them. Problems such as drug addiction, over-
population and racial strife can be solved only by the clear-thinking, unbiased
and creative adults that our children can become if we educate them properly.
Today’s toddlers must be equipped to find creative alternatives to
these problems and many others not yet envisioned. They will have to do so
in the shortest span of time and under the most severe kinds of pressure.
Statement of the Problem
The problem is twofold in nature: first, how to utilize modern
technology to upgrade the education of children, beginning at an early age, in
order to equip them for their future roles as responsible adults in the highly
complex and sophisticated society of the 21st Century; and secondly, how to
fight racism in our society by attempting to break down one of the methods by
which it perpetuates itself. Racism, as stated by Stokely Carmichael and
Charles V. Hamilton, is:
3
• • • both overt and covert. It takes two closelyrelated forms: Individual whites acting againstindividual blacks, and acts by the total whitecommunity against the black community. Wecall these individual racism and institutional
racism. The first consists of overt acts byindividuals, which cause death, injury or violent
destruction of property. This type can be
reached by television cameras; it can frequently
be observed in the process of commission. Thesecond type is less overt, far more subtle,
less identifiable in terms of specific individuals
committing the acts. But it is no less destructive
of human life. The second type originates in the
operation of established and respected forces in
the society, and thus receives far less public
condemnation than the first type. *
The subtleness with which institutional racism permeates the core of
our society makes it very difficult to identify and root out. Institutional racism
tends to be seif perpetuating because of majority control of society's vast
institutions, the law enforcement, judicial, political and economic systems. It
thus protects and promotes the status quo.
This study will examine and discuss educational racism, which is one
aspect of institutional racism. Educational racism manifests itself in sub-
standard facilities, poorly trained and/or indifferent teachers, and in the
tendency of society-at-large to place the blame for the urban school crisis on
the victim, the inner city child, who is helplessly trapped in a second rate
educational situation.
Because of existing educational racism, the Black child cannot, for
the most part, look to the school to fulfill the "American dream" of upward
4
mobility through education. Charles Silberman points this out in his book
Crisis in the Classroom, in which he observes that:
Far from being the great "equalizer,” the
schools help perpetuate the differences in
condition. . . or do little to reduce them.If the United States is to become a truly just
and humane society, the schools will have to
do an incomparably better job than they arenow doing of educating youngsters fromminority groups. ^
Instead, the minority child's substandard education insures for him the second
class citizenship that comes from an inadequate education in a far too complex
world.
In the Leacock study, Teaching and Learning in City Schools,the
author states : "Schools are the means through which children are prepared to
fit rungs on the occupational ladder more or less equivalent to those occupied
qby their parents." It is increasingly clear that because of existing racism,
school boards do not appropriate the same amount of money per capita in Black
schools as in White schools. In a report on the Washington, D.C. system by
Julius Hobson, using 1968 budgetary figures, the highest expenditure per capita
in any predominantly Black elementary school was only 81 percent as much as
the lowest expenditure per capita in a predominantly White elementary school.
The monetary breakdown of Federal funds which were gathered from taxes for
the purpose of educating "our" children was as follows
Black child per capita — $292 - $334
White child per capita — $510 - $798
5
Couple this overt act of racism with the more subtle one of placement of the
less experienced and less qualified teachers in the core city schools, and any
casual observer can see that this country has no right to expect better educated,
more humane adults in the future unless equality of educational opportunity
becomes a reality immediately
!
These two issues—educating children at an earlier age while utilizing
modern technology to update educational methods, and providing true equality of
educational opportunity across the board, no matter the race or socio-economic
status of the child—are interrelated. As more focus is placed on the educational
gap between middle income children and economically deprived children, it
becomes quite apparent that the earlier the economically deprived child is able
to master the primary skills he must have to build his further learning, the
better his chances of catching up academically with his middle income counter-
part.
Studies by educational researchers like Benjamin Bloom state that
"from conception to age 4 the individual develops 50 percent of his mature
intelligence [and] from ages 4-8 develops another 30 percent. It makes
increasingly more sense to intercede earlier with these skills. Bloom goes on
to point out that children often are so oppressed by their negative environment
that in the first four years of their lives, their I.Q. growth can be stunted by as
much as 2.5 I.Q. points a year. 6
6
" Learning to Learn" is a skill in itself and must be mastered before
kindergarten. Much of what the child is tested on in kindergarten and first
grade consists of acquired skills thought to be important by the majority society.
These include:
1. The ability to pay attention.
2. Audio discrimination.
3. Language development.
4. Valuing educational endeavors as their own reward.I
5. Development of thinking and reasoning.
76. The ability to use adults as resources.
Because of the existing educational racism in the schools today, the
minority child is placed under a great disadvantage from the very beginning,
for although he may not have mastered certain skills prescribed by the
controlling society, he does not enter school without having acquired valuable
skills with which to function in his own milieu. These skills, however, are
either not recognized as valuable by the controlling educational establishment,
or are discouraged as being negative. When asked in a recent interview to
define intelligence, Dr. Ed Carpenter, Headmaster of Harlem P reft one of the
most successful alternative schools in the country, responded:
Intelligence is a learned response having its
criteria defined by the majority society. For
example, if a Ph. D. were dropped into the
jungle, his intelligence might be questioned
by the natives, for he would probably not
possess the survival skills of a young child in
that environment. Therefore, in any situationshould not intelligence be based on the ability
to survive in one's environment?^
7
Besides being evaluated as unintelligent by the "educational experts"
who are themselves products of a racist society, the Black child is further
victimized by the lact that he is culturally different than the controlling society
The experts in the educational system tend to viewblack students as potential whites with little con-sideration given to their distinct culture and styles
of life—educators have insisted, consciously or
"unconsciously" that black children be educated out
of the blackness.^
By attempting to negate and discredit the unique experiences of the
culturally different child, our present educational system tends to damage this
child's self concept. In Dr. James A. Goodman's "Institutional Racism: The
Crucible of Black Identity" he states:
An individual's notion of who he is contributes
significantly to the development of his response
pattern to the institutions of society. . . the
extent to which his notion of self is confirmed
or rejected by others will be crucial to his
vision of self. . . the manner in which the
individual develops his personal identity state-
ment depends on the conditions for self-
realization in the environment and the ability
of the individual to perceive these conditions
in objective terms. Depending on the outcome,
this may tend to enhance or impede the biological
and psychological push from within that involves
man's search for identity. When this inner thrust
is counteracted, inner conflict may be seen as a
function of the degree of awareness that the
individual has. If limited alternatives are provided
in the environment this conflict is likely to be
8
expressed in "self” directed or "other" directedhostility. In order for an individual to feel apositive sense of selfhood, he must come tobelieve that the society in which he lives placesvalue on his being .
10
The child receiving little or no recognition for the survival skills he
does possess soon begins to manifest symptoms of the "Tailspin Syndrome, "
which is the cumulative effect that constant and repeated failure in academic
tasks has on the child’s self image.
The economically disadvantaged children often
tend to show a marked decrease in initiative,
concentration, responsiveness to adult teachersand effectiveness of work habits, as comparedwith their (own) behavior a year earlier .
11
The "Tailspin Syndrome" causes a child to lose his motivation as well
as his ability to cope with the academic tasks set before him. Its cumulative
nature, coupled with its negative effect on the child’s ability to achieve
academically, is so devastating that the death of his sense of "somebodyness"
occurs. With the death of the hopes and dreams of the young comes the birth
of the potential dropout or, even more tragically, the drug addict of the future.
Environmental interventionists like Dr. Joseph McVicker Hunt of the
University of Illinois believe that if a farmer can produce a better crop by
enriching the soil, we can upgrade intelligence by enrichment of the child’s
environment. Dr. Hunt and many other educational researchers believe that
only the outer limits of one's intelligence are fixed at birth and that, with an
9
enriched environment at an early age, an individual's range may run from 80
I.Q. points (thus, a low track) to 120 I. Q. points (typical of a college graduate).
This range represents the difference between a productive life and one of un-
employment and despair. Dr. Hunt feels that "We might raise the average level
of intelligence during the next generation or two by as much as 30 points of I.Q.
,
provided we reach the child early enough. "12
With the changing attitudes on the part of the educational establishment
about the ability of preschoolers to engage in fruitful intellectual pursuits, and
the pressing need to stamp out educational racism, a great deal of pressure has
been brought to bear on the government and educational system alike to develop
a system of pre-kindergarten education for all youngsters.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study will be to examine the two problems set forth
ahove, namely, the need to educate children earlier and with more sophisticated
techniques, and the need to combat educational racism to ensure equal opportunity
in education for all youngsters.
Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study are:
1. To examine and evaluate the effectiveness of the
"Sesame Street" television program as a prototype
for other forms of instructional television programming.
10
2 . To show how an attempt to combat educational
racism can be made via the media by a deliberate
bolstering of the minority child's self image through
such methods as interracial casting.
3. To examine how educational racism can be
combatted by reeducating the White or majority
child to have some knowledge of the multi-racial
and multi-cultural world in which he lives. If the
majority child has some understanding of and
appreciation for the contributions of cultures other
than his own, more of an awareness and appreciation
for individual differences—rather than a fear of
them—can be developed at an early age.
4. To examine how the Community Education Division
of the Children’s Television Workshop ensures that
the child who needs the program most—the inner
city and rural child—can be encouraged and
enabled to view it.
5. To present an outline of a new television program,
a "Sesame Street Mothers' Show," which would be
oriented toward the child's first teacher—his mother.
Specific program elements will be identified and the
relationship with "Sesame Street" analyzed.
11
Organization of the Study
Chapter II will present a review of literature related to three areas:
hQvV young children can learn at an early age; what shape education should take
for TV babies and space age babies; and ihe necessity for educators to intervene
in order to enrich the child’s environment. These three areas form the basis
for much of the thrust of Sesame Street, and that thrust is examined in Chapter
III. Sesame Street's success in teaching cognitive skills has been well established
by summative research done by the Educational Testing Service. What has been
so much harder to program and measure, however, are the affective skills
that promote self image, racial tolerance and cooperation. The second half of
Chapter III reports on some of the programming principles that were developed
by Sesame Street to teach affective skills. Chapter IV reports on how the
Community Education Division attempts to get the program to the children who
need it most. Finally, Chapter V presents a proposal for a "Sesame Street
Mothers' Show," which would be developed to upgrade the mothers' skills in
encouraging and reinforcing their children's learning.
CHAPTER II
KINDERGARTEN — TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
This chapter will review the literature and related research from three
viewpoints. First, it will examine the theory that children can and do start
learning at birth; therefore, not taking advantage of this natural predilection
toward learning is a waste of human potential. Secondly, it will review the
pertinent arguments concerning the shape that preschool education must take.
Preschoolers of today are both space age children and "TV babies. ” Both
manned space flights and television are integral parts of their environment.
These children, facing the possibility of space travel in their future and armed
with a general abundance of information obtained from constant television viewing,
must be educated earlier and differently than prior generations of children in
order to function as efficient adults in the twenty-first century.
Thirdly, it will present the arguments and pertinent studies concerned
with the intervention of educators into the child's environment. Thus, children
from impoverished environments should be educated sooner in an attempt to
intervene in and supplement their environments and to provide them with certain
"survival skills" that will enable them to fight educational racism and to survive
kindergarten through third grade with their self esteem, dreams, and motivations
13
still inaet. It cannot be questioned that, given the conditions of many of our inner
City schools, just to stay in the educational "ball game" through grade three is
no mean feat for an economically deprived child.
Young Children Can Learn
In regard to a child's ability to learn at an early age, there is a wide
spectrum of thought among educators and psychologists. At one end of the
spectrum are the Gesellian maturationists, who believe that a child must reach
a certain chronological age in order to be "ready" for certain aspects of learning.
In many cases the maturationists feel that experience is unimportant and that
the child has to be matured sufficiently in order to be ready to learn. They would
probably advise those of us in favor of early education for young children to
leave the child alone to grow. In the past many American educators have tended
to misinterpret the theory of sequential learning stages as introduced by Piaget.
They looked upon the theory that the child must reach certain stages in order to
go to the next plateau of learning as an indication that he must also attain a
certain chronological age before learning can happen. It was thought that he
must be anatomically "ready"; thus, they set the arbitrary age of five or six for
the child to be "ready" for formal schooling and spent an enormous amount of
time and creativity devising methods to measure his "readiness" to read, write
and master other skills.
14
On the other end of the spectrum are the transactional psychologists,
who feel that intelligence is built on transactions or experiences, vicarious or
actual. They feel that "experience" contributes to readiness. Piaget, the Swiss
psychologist, concurs with this theory: "Ideas grow on ideas and they are the
start of learning. Ira Gordon relates the fundamental issue between
maturationists and transactionalists as follows:
Readiness will not occur, maturation will not
occur, learning will not occur and intelligence
will not develop if we simply sit back and wait
for structure (anatomical growth of the child). . .
We used to talk about structure (anatomical
growth) and function (achievement) as though
structure led to function. . . . We can picture
that notion as a one-way street, in which you have
structure with a one-headed arrow pointing at
function. . . . We now put another arrowhead on
structure. . Function plays a role in determining
and creating structure. ^
In short, "teachers should grasp this concept of sequence without the chains of
Otime boundaries. "°
Since we tend to use the words learn and educate as if they were identical,
this misconception has been prevalent: that because formal education begins at
roughly six years of age, so does the learning process. Researchers like Dr.
Joseph McVicker Hunt have helped to dispel this attitude. In Intelligence and
Intellectual Development, he reports that infants not only can learn, but can go
through stages of physical development at an accelerated pace if suitably
stimulated by their environment.
15
In my own laboratory, merely providing infantswith the opportunity to use their eyes by lookingat a stable pattern placed above their cribs atfive weeks of age decreased the age at which theblink-response appears, from an average of10. 4 weeks to an average of 7 weeks. 4
Research of this type has helped change the attitude held by some people
in the educational establishment that infants were incompetent and disorganized
beings unable to see, hear or really sense. There is now evidence to support
the hypothesis that infants are not only competent at birth but are able to see,
hear, sense and engage in learning processes from the very beginning. There
has even been work to substantiate the fact that infants begin to assert their
individuality at a very young age. Keesen, for example, who took motion pictures
of infants lying in cribs, has shown that measurements of distinguished activity
level, such as the number of times an infant puts his thumb in his mouth,
indicates to some extent the emerging individuality of the infant.^
Recent educational research is making it apparent that young children
should be educated sooner than ever before, because they can learn, and are
learning anyway. We as educators and parents often underestimate the intelli-
gence and potential of very young children. We do them a great disservice with
the notion that from the ages of one through five, children should only be allowed
to engage in the adult concept of "play". Play, as adults see it, usually centers
around toys and games and has no particular educational goal. Children, however,
have such a thirst for knowledge that they learn from all their games whether
16
they involve expensive toys or just opening and shutting the refrigerator door to
watch the light go on and off. This arbitrary division between work and play is
an adult concept, for most children can, if left to their own devices, make games
of, and learn from, most tasks given them. A small child can learn as much
from putting away the silverware as from playing with an expensive educational
toy. Not to capitalize on the preschoolers' predilection for learning and his quest
for knowledge and various experiences is one of the greatest wastes of natural
resources in this country today. In the words of Glenn Doman, Director of the
Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia:
There has never been in the history of man, anadult scientist who has been half so curious as
any child between the ages of eighteen monthsand four years. We adults have mistaken this
superb, curiosity as. . . a lack of ability to
concentrate.
We have of course observed our children care-
fully, but we have not always understood what
their actions mean. ... 6
Mr. Doman has been successfully engaged in teaching preschool children
to read. This is a most astonishing accomplishment because he works only with
brain damaged children. He feels that,
By the time the child reaches 6, he has learned
most of the basic facts about himself and his
family. He has learned about his neighbors
and his relationship to them, his world and his
relationship to it, and a host of other facts which
are literally uncountable. Most significantly
he has learned at least one whole language and
sometimes more than one. . . .
17
All this before he has seen the inside of a class-room. The process of learning through theseyears proceeds at a great speed unless we thwartit. If we appreciate and encourage it the processwill take place at a truly unbelievable rate. Wecan diminish the child’s desire to learn by limitingthe experiences to which we expose him. . . . Wecan multiply by many times the knowledge heabsorbs and even his potential if we appreciate hissuperb capacity for learning and give him.oppotunity while simultaneously encouraging himto do so. ‘
Mr. Doman compares the new born child to an empty computer in the
following ways. Both the child and computer can:
A. Receive an abundance of material effortlessly.
B. Classify and file it.
C . Store it temporarily or permanently.
D. Give answers and judgments if supplied with
sufficient basic information.
E. Give incorrect answers if fed incorrect information.
The parallel ends at this point, for if the computer is incorrectly pro-
grammed, it can be easily emptied and reprogrammed, while "reprogramming"
is much more difficult for a child, especially if this misinformation is placed
Q
in the child's brain during his first eight years.
Doman concurs with Benjamin Bloom and others that the ages between
one and eight are the most pliable and formative years. Doman feels that
18
children should not only be taught to read during these preschool days but also
should be taught languages, for they seem to have a great facility for acquiring
foreign languages during this time and should be given an opportunity to act on
this educational aptitude. He cites, as an example, the geographical differences
in speech in our own language, pointing out that a child raised in the South will
keep that southern accent no matter how well educated he becomes. Or a child
raised in New England will keep his New England accent no matter his educational
background as an adult. "What is placed in a child’s brain during the first eight
years of his life is probably there to stay. We should therefore, make every
effort to make certain it is good and correct. ”9
Benjamin Bloom states in his study, Stability In Changing Human
Characteristics, that after 8 years of age only an additional 20 percent of the
child's total I.Q. development takes place. Doman feels that after 8 years of
age the child's ability to assimilate information will begin to decrease. Prior
to that time the child is actually superior to the adult in some ways, particularly
in the learning of a foreign language. I myself know two children whose father
is French-Canadian and spoke both French and English, whose mother is Puerto
Rican and spoke Spanish, and whose nurse is Danish. These children are so
proficient in all four languages that I have witnessed their conversing with each
other in his or her given language in one conversation, as early as ages three and four.
Contrast this with the way that high school students or college students labor at
19
learning languages as adults or as teenagers and one must agree that Mr. Demon's
theory has some validity.10
Young children should be educated sooner if for no other reason than
the accomplishment of certain educational tasks which raise the child's self
esteem. Think of the pride of a three year old who can recite the alphabet or
pick out all the letters in his or her name. "Hooking into" the child's natural
desire to learn while instilling in him or her a real zest and love for learning
will have a positive effect on the child's future learning experiences. Dr. James
Hymes, Jr., concurs in his book Teaching the Child Under Six : "Good early
experiences will tend to have some effect on the child's future interest and
enthusiasm about the learning experience. 1,11
Contrast this with a young child who is forced to wait until six years of
age before being involved in any kind of school situation and who often negatively
associates the unpleasantness of being away from home for the first time with
the learning experience. Dr. Hymes not only feels that young children should
be educated sooner, but also that the whole concept of pre school is faulty. He
advocates making first grade for three year olds, second grade for fours and
third grade for five-year olds. He is very careful to specify, however, that
these grade levels should be specially designed for the specific ages and
administered by early childhood specialists who, having been specially trained,
will be able to recognize and meet the needs of the three year old on all levels:
20
not only intellectually, but also emotionally, and socially. 12
The importance o£ proper training from the teacher training institution
can not be emphasized enough. The lack of proper training was driven homequite strongly recently when the researcher gave a talk to a seminar about the
successful way in which cognitive skills and concepts were being taught via
television on "Sesame Street. " After the presentation a rather overwrought
man raised his hand and shouted, "If we teach them to read in kindergarten, then
what will the first grade teacher teach? Reading is not in the curriculum guide
for kindergarten. "
This inflexibility and resistence to change must be eliminated if we are
serious about educating the space age child properly.
What Shape for Education
The Space Age Child
It is not enough to realize that we should start educating children sooner
because they are able to learn. We must also realize that today’s children are
future citizens of the 21st Century. These space age ’’television babies" need to
be better educated than prior generations of children in order to function as
adults in the technological and complex society of the future.
As the burgeoning role of technology in oursociety calls for higher and higher levels of
competence in larger and larger supply,
those without at least fairly high levels of
competence find it harder and harder to
earn their way in the market place and to
participate in the affluence deriving fromour technology. . . .
21
The task of maximizing the competence of ourchildren has acquired new urgency.
Nursery school or some kind of preschool experience has existed for
quite some time for those children whose parents could afford private schooling.
Day nurseries have been in existence since 1854 and kindergartens since 1855.
With the coming of the space age, the need for a preschool experience for all
children, especially the economically deprived, has become more apparent
and pressing. Dr. Chester Pierce, an educator-psychiatrist from Harvard>
suggests that school children should be introduced to a study of the future or
futuristics at an early age. ’’The peaceful world that we hope to have in the 21st
Century may be won in the nursery schools of 1970. ” 14 Since these children of
the space age have the real possibility of interplanetary travel, their education
should attempt to prepare them for this future role, and for the emergence of
new future cultures. Dr. Pierce goes on to say,
An educator must never lose sight of the fact
that he is preparing citizens for the future.
He must feel that there is nothing more urgent
than the proper accomplishment of this mission
and he must dare to hope for things that he can
only begin to glimpse. The child who is well
prepared will meet the future with confidence
bred of the penetrating insight and constructive
foresight that his teachers have provided him.
As an adult he will be able to operate in an
effective, efficient, manner and in terms of his
own personal life his membership in society, as
a whole. The teacher. . . may conclude that the
three year old. . . should starting tomorrow be
molded in such a manner that he becomes,
22
1„ a cosmopolite, 2. fluent in communicationanalysis, 3. conversant with the problemsresulting from overcrowding.
. . . The 21stCentury citizen will need an abundance ofcognitive skills but he will also need an equalquantity of skills in the affective. . . aspectsof life.
15
If as educators we want to meet the needs of our space age children
we must always be cognizant of the fact that they are part of a new fast-moving
society based on transients, while we are a part of society still based largely
on permanence. Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock refers to these children
as part of "the Barbie doll generation, " who cheerfully turn in their dolls for a
newer model while we tend to clutch our old dolls until they fall apart. 16
Toffler concurs with Dr. Pierce that the accelerative thrust of change and the
flood of technological knowledge that bombards the average person can cause him
to be disoriented if he is not educated to be flexible and adaptable and not to be
threatened by change. This citizen of the future must be trained to see alternatives
and think creativly, for he will be called upon to make decisions upon which he
has no prior knowledge. In order to meet the needs of these children, a space
age approach to education must be employed which would update educational
techniques and methodology by incorporating the technological knowledge spun
off by the space program and other technological advances.
TV Babies
It’s not enough to realize that young children have the ability to be
23
educated earlier than kindergarten or even that formal education should begin
earlier in order to equip them to deal with the complexities of living in the space
age. We as educators must realize that these children are TV babies who have
been exposed to television since infancy, and have been learning from it for
most of that time. One may well argue about the quality of learning, but one
cannot ignore the fact that the learning process is taking place. Nat Rutstein,
author of Dealing with the Television Child. An Educational Crisis, stresses
this fact.
For most American children TV is a primeron life. Unlike their parents who wereinfluenced by books and radio, children arecreatures of TV. From the cradle they havebeen immersed in television and nourished byits messages. It is the communication vehiclethey understand best and trust the most. 17
The 1970 census shows that 96 percent of all American homes have at
least one television set, thereby making television accessable to most children.18
Even in homes where the income is less than $5,000, 90 percent of the families
possess at least one working tv set. More people have television sets in this
country than have bathtubs, vacuum cleaners, toasters, telephones, or daily
19newspapers.
According to the Nielsen index, a good portion of the viewing audience
is comprised of children under six years of age (See Table I).
One has only to examine some of the studies in the field of research
on the television viewing habits of young children to realize what an integral
24
TABLE I
Number of Hours Viewed Per Week By Age
r2
h
htrLAwee
e?a
eM,7tCh
'T'T^^ Vi^ S~ « -rage ofT® * *ef’
chlldren under ‘he age of six watch it 54. 1 hours a week OneO y o is ten to a child singing a television jingle to his mother in the'suoermarket to realize that 'the tube" is teaching him something, Inshoreedium is there; it is only the message which needs changing.
This information, drawn from the Nielsen Television Indexdo proportionately more viewing than any other age group,
’shows that children
May-June
u. s. Average 37.0
Age: Under 6 46.06-11 42.912-17 42. 7
M 18-35* 40.0F 18-35* 41.6M 35-49* 40.5F 35-49* 39.7
jfidex Nov-Dec . Index
100 42.0 100
128 54.
1
129116 52.3 125115 48. 3 115108 47.2 112112 49. 7 118109 45.5 108107 43.7 104
This table indicates that in late spring, when alt television viewing begins to falloff, children under six watch 28% more than the U. S. average, and children sixto eleven, 16% more than average. During the fall, the peak viewing season,these same groups of children watch 25% to 30% more television. These relativefigures hold true for any bi-monthly period.
These figures shown here for comparison do not constitute the entire male andfemale population: M is the male head of household and F is the female lady of
the house. These categories are standard Nielsen categories, and must servein lieu of straight age breakouts.
Source: Jack Lyle, Heidi Hoffman, "Children’s Use of Television, " Television andSocial Behavior, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972, Vol. 4, p. 132.
25
part of a 3-5 year old's life television really is. Schramm. Lyle, and Parker
pointed out in their study of 1961 that:
The first direct experience with televisiontypically comes at age 2. Chances are thechild will eavesdrop on a program someoneelse has tuned in. But he soon begins toexplore the world of television and to developtastes and preferences of his own. By the ageof 3 he is able to shout for his favorite program... by the age of 3 then the average child is
already making fairly regular use of television.He sees a number of ’children’s programs, '
soon branches out into westerns and similarentertainment. 20
The Schramm, Lyle, and Parker study also pointed out that approximately one-
sixth of the child's waking hours from ages three onward is spent watching
television and during the years from 1-16 the average child has logged as many
hours before the television set as he or she could spend in the classroom.
"Television is probably the greatest source of common experience in the lives of
children and along with the home and the school it has come to play a major part
21in socializing the child. " In a more recent study of the viewing habits of pre-
schoolers in the Los Angeles area done by Jack Lyle and Heidi R. Hoffman,
more support was given to the theory that mass media, especially television,
played an important role in the lives of preschool children. In this study, 158
preschoolers were questioned. The composition of the group tested is found in
Table 1 1.
26
TABLE 1
1
Characteristics of the Sample
Basic demographic characteristics of the 158 children interviewed are detailed.There was a roughly even division between boys and girls and between students*in half-day and full-day programs. Four-year-olds constituted about half thesample; the remainder was divided about equally between three- and five-year-olds. Over half the children were Caucasian, but sufficient numbers of blacksand Mexican-Americans were included to make comparisons possible. TheMexican-Americans tended to be older than the other groups. The age profilesfor boys and girls were relatively even.
N=158
%
Girls 48.
Boys 51.
Age 3 24.
Age 4 52.
Age 5 22.
Age 6 •
Caucasian 55.
Negro 23.
Mexican-American 17.
Other 3.
Poverty-level 41.
Middle-class 58.
Full-day students 48.
Part-day students 51.
Four of every ten children came from poor or welfare families. These were
primarily the minority children, and review of the cross tabulations suggested
that the two were basically redundant. Therefore, in the analysis which follows,
the emphasis has been on ethnic rather than on socio-economic comparisons.
Source: Jack Lyle and Heidi Hoffman, ’’Explorations In Patterns of Television
Viewing by Preschool-Aged Children, " University of California at Los Angeles,
Television and Social Behavior ,Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1972, Vol. 4, p. 258.
27
In the group of 158 children studied, four out of every ten came from
welfare families but only two children out of the 158 were without at least one
television set. Twelve percent even had sets of their own and 98 percent said
that they enjoyed watching TV. According to this study, even very young children
could select their favorite program and identify some of their favorite
characters. Table 111 shows the breakdown according to age, se«, and racial
background.
The cartoon show "The Flintstones" was first in popularity followed
by Sesame Street" which was the most popular among three year olds, and
named more often by White children than Black. It should be noted however, that
in the Los Angeles area the educational channel which broadcasts "Sesame Street"
is UHF while the "Flintstones" is broadcast via VHF. In many of the core cities
polled, older sets cannot pick up the UHF signal nor can extra money be found
to provide the UHF adapters needed to pick up the educational channel. Also,
Misterogers (UHF) was not selected by Black children.
Table IV is a breakdown of the levels of identification of television
characters from pictures shown to the children by the interviewer.
Favorite
Program
Categories
28
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Source:
Jack
Lyle
and
Heidi
Hoffman,
"Explorations
in
Patterns
of
Television
Viewing
by
Presc;
^-t-Aged
Children,
"
p.
262
29
TABLE IV
Levels of Identification for Characters(Percent able to identify characters from pictures)
Characters All
Children Girls BoysAge3
Age
4
Age
5 Caucasian NegroMexican
Americans
Fred Flintstone 92.3% 89.3% 95.1% 87.2% 92.6% 97.1% 89.8% 100.0% 92.6%
Wilma Flintstone 71.6 71.6 71.6 61.2 72.5 82,9 64.4 77. 8 85.2
Scooby Do 48. 4 45.2 51.3 25.6 52.6 65.7 40.2 55.6 65.4
Lucy 64.1 68.0 60.5 53.8 66.7 71.4 59.
1
83. 3 59.3
Malloy (Adam-12) 17.6 18.1 17.1 8.1 16.9 27.3 5.9 32.4 41.7
Bill Cosby 24. 7 21.9 27.2 17.9 26.3 29.4 17.2 52. 8 11.5
Samantha (Bewitched) 49.7 54.1 45.6 28.2 54.4 62.9 38.6 63.9 70. 8
Gilllgan 57.5 54.8 60.0 48.7 54.4 71.4 53.4 63.9 70.8
Skipper (Gilligan) 54.6 50.7 58.2 46.2 52.6 65.7 52.9 55.6 66.7
Tom Corbett (Eddie's
Father) 24.0 18.9 28.8 23.
1
20.3 34.3 18.4 40.0 25.9
Julia 11.8 13.3 10.3 5.4 8.8 25.7 3.4 31.4 15.4
Danny Partridge 21.3 20.3 22.2 17.9 23.5 20.6 11.4 38.9 34.6
Buffy (Family Affair) 25.2 27.0 23.5 23.1 21.0 38.2 15.9 44.4 26.9
Marcia Brady 13.0 15.1 11.1 20.5 7.4 18.2 8.0 30.6 7.7
Eddie (Eddie's Father) 23.4 17.6 28.8 20.5 20.3 34.3 18.4 40.0 22.2
Cory (Julia) 11.3 12.0 10.5 8.1 8.9 20.6 1.2 85.3 15.4
Sesame St,
Big Bird 77.6 73.3 81.5 74.4 76.5 82.9 85.2 75.0 51.9
Ernie 50.4 41.3 56.8 48.7 54.3 40.3 62.5 22. 2 44.4
Bert 50.3 43.2 56.8 58.7 55.0 42.9 64.4 22.2 44.4
Gordon 46.1 37.0 54.3 41.0 49.4 45.7 60.9 19.4 38.5
Fred Rogers
(Misterogers) 36. 8 31.1 42.0 33.3 36.3 42.9 53.4 5.6 26.9
Source: Jack Lyle and Heidi Hoffman, "Explorations in Patterns of Television Viewing by Preschool-Aged Children," p. 263-265.
30
Fred Flintstone was the most frequently recognized character and his
wife Wilma was in the top three. "Sesame street’s" Big Bird was number two.
Other characters from 'Sesame Street" were quite well known but the fact that
Big Bird has enjoyed more outside publicity might have had an influence on the
finding. The difference in the level of recognition of "Sesame Street" characters
along both ethnic and sexual lines was apparent. More White children than
Black children recognized "Big Bird, " and more boys than girls recognized the
other "Sesame Street" characters. The fact that Bert and Ernie, two hand
puppets, and Gordon, one of the adult hosts, were all male characters must be
considered. It is also interesting to note that several adult characters on day-
time reruns such as Lucy of the "I Love Lucy Show," Gilligan of "Gilligan's
Island" and Samantha of "Bewitched" scored quite high among the children.
Malloy of "Adam-12" and Julia of the "Julia Show" as well as Tom Corbett of
the "Courtship of Eddie's Father, " all of which are in early night time slots,
scored quite high in recognition among five year olds, who are probably allowed
to stay up later. The difference in recognition of Black characters on network
television between Black and White children was marked. Bill Cosby and Julia,
who was played by Diahann Carroll, were recognized more often by Black
children than by Whites, while Gordon, a Black character on "Sesame Street"
was recognized most often by White children (60 percent), second by Mexican
American children (38, 5 percent) and finally by only 19. 4 percent of Black
children. Although Lyle did not draw any inference from this fact, the
investigator is still convinced that the UHF factor has a great influence on the
Black viewing audiences’ ability to recognize characters from "Sesame Street. "
Only 76 mothers of the children were contacted for the followup interviews. I was
disappointed to find that the vast majority of those interviewed were White.
Some excuse about the difficulty of reaching minority mothers was given, but
this factor substantially distorts the final component of the study. However, the
results are as follows:
74 percent of the mothers interviewed said that their
children had learned commercial jingles from television.
62 percent said this had begun about the age of two.
31 percent stated this had begun around age three.
91 percent of the mothers said that the children asked
for toys they saw on television.
87 percent asked for food items seen on television.**^
Only 22 percent of the mothers said they denied the children’s request
outright while most tended to sidetrack the children’s request for food and toys
seen on TV. Although most mothers interviewed agreed that their children
learned from television, most mothers also felt that it was a mixed blessing.
17 percent cited "learning about life through television."
28 percent cited "school readiness. "
"Misterogers ’’ as "good learning experiences. "
23Miscellaneous responses made up the remainder.
32
Studies such as these make it quite apparent that not only are most pre-
schoolers "media minded, ” having formulated set viewing patterns by three
years of age, but also are learning from television commercials. Any grand-
parent will happily expound on the ability of his or her grandchild to sing jingles,
use catch phrases from commercials appropriately, or read "sight words"
gleaned from trademarks and logos of products. My four year old nephew Andre
once piped, "Thanks, I needed that" upon being served a particularly nice
dessert by my mother. My four year old niece, Dyana, has become the bane
of my sister Cyndi's existence while in the grocery store. The other day Cyndi
selected Fab from the shelf and was about to put it in her cart when Dyana
rushed up with another brand of detergent. She pointed to and read correctly the
name. Bonus, and went on to extol its virtues to her mother, including the fact
that it contained a bath towel. Try as we may to ignore the impact of that
magic window to the world, the fact still remains, the learning process is
going on via television:
We should expect that the greatest amount of
learning from television would take place in the
early years of a child's use of it. The ages from3-8 let us say, would be the time when television
would have the least competition. The child's slate
is relatively clean. Almost any experience is new
to him and therefore absorbing. And television as
we know, has an enormous power to absorb the
attention of a young child. After the child starts
school, television has greater competition for
attention and interest. But in the year before the
child starts to read when his horizon is still
35
narrow and his curiosity boundless, whenalmost everything beyond his home and hisfamily circle is new. . . that is the timewhen television has the unique opportunityto contribute information and vocabularyskill/*
4
The study goes on to say that the regular television viewer comes to
school with approximately one year’s vocabulary advantage over non-viewers.
Although this average is not maintained beyond the sixth grade, it is still very
good for the child’s self concept. According to other authorities in the field,
the time spent viewing television prior to attending formal school is roughly
equivalent to some five years of adult education. No wonder our TV babies seem
so much brighter than their pre -television predecessors.
Why Must Educators Intervene
Although children are learning sooner and gaining much information
from television, the plight of the disadvantaged child presents the most valid
case for early childhood education as an antidote to racism existing in our
society as a whole, and in the educational system in particular. The preschool
enrichment method as one alternative to the problem is proving to be an effective
device for the upgrading of the environment of the disadvantaged child. Often
he is suffering from what might be called experiential deprivation or lack of
varied experiences of the type which formal schooling draws upon for further
learning. Carol Honstead states, in her article, "The Developmental Theory
of Jean Piaget":
34
It is important for young children to be exposedto a wide variety of objects, pictures, placesof interest, and sensory experiences. Theyneed opportunities for social approval.
. tohave their questions answered, to imitateappropriate models of behavior. Experiencessuch as these give children a backlog of imageswhich help them to learn language skills andgrasp new concepts.
Because of the recent studies such as those of Wayne Dennis of orphans in
Teheran, where 60 percent of two year olds could not sit alone and 58 percent
of four year o lds could not walk alone, psychologists have begun to feel that
wide sensory experience in the preverbal period of infancy, formerly thought to
be primarily important only for affective development, is also significant in the
providing of foundations for future cognitive development. Studies of apathetic
and dull institutionalized children, which were once interpreted as being the
victims of maternal deprivation, are now being reexamined and interpreted as
also reflecting deprivation of sensory stimulation and of opportunities to explore
and manipulate the environment.
The more abundant the child's storehouse of sensory experiences, the
richer his perception and the greater his learning potential. This theory could
be summed up in this simple statement, "The more a child has seen and heard, the
more he wants to see and hear. " When discussing studies of intellectual develop-
ment it was stated, "Ideas grow on ideas and are the start of learning. " Much has
been done to fight the concept of Fixed I. Q. 's popular in the twenties. This is
35
the basis for many of the breakthroughs in the human growth and development
field made by modern theorists. Psychiatrists today are just beginning to
understand the impact of Piaget’s statement regarding the important part varied
experiences play in the intellectual development of the young child. Eventually
it was discovered that the brain was more like an electronic computer with each
experience being stored in the intrinsic portion of the cerebrum, to be called
upon later for problem solving. The previously held theory was that the brain
was static, much like a telephone switchboard, which only reacted to stimuli
through a hierarchy of reflexes which were hitched together, each triggering
the next.
The Piagetian concept of intellectual growth could be likened to a flight
of stairs. As a child mounts each stair he goes through the process which Piaget
refers to as equilibration. This process of equilibration is attained through
’’assimilation" of data, which is the process that takes place as the child,
climbing the intellectual flight of stairs, interprets the stimuli around him by
referring to previous experiences and adjusting his thinking according to the
level he is on and the quality of his bank of stored experiences. "Accommodation”
is the part of the process that happens as the child changes his ideas to fit the new
situation confronting him, thus resulting in equilibration. It should be noted that
"adaptation, " is the simultaneous process of assimilation-accommodation taking
place. The assimilation part of the learning process can happen only if the child
has some previous experience to call upon: thus, enriched educational experiences
36
result in intellectual growth. The richer the child's storehouse of experiences,
the better his chances of engaging in what Piaget refers to as "new accommoda-tions, thereby readying himself for more complex learning. In other words,
when a child encounters something new, he works at attempting to relate it to
something he knows. As the new object becomes familiar to him he reaches a
new level of equilibration. Piaget’s studies stress the importance of varied
experience for the young child. Detractors of his works state that he seems
always to speak in terms of an optimum environment, when in fact the child who
needs help lives in anything but that type of environment. Instead, their environ-
ment, as the writer experienced it in an urban school setting, contains some of
the following intrinsic factors of ghetto life, which contribute to the difficulty the
inner city children have upon entering school:
1.
Inadequate prenatal care for the poverty mother
increases the odds that birth defects will occur.
2. Inadequate health care facilities for the mother
and new infant increase the chances that early
defects such as brain damage, poor sight or
hearing, if present, will not be detected.
3. Inadequate diet often hampers young children in
all facets of their development.
4. Inadequate and overcrowded housing tends to limit
the amount of space allotted to the inquisitive
37
youngster for exploring and expanding his world.
5. The verbal patterns of the adults in the household
often differ from those used in the school.
6. The natural inquisitive nature of the preschool
child is often thwarted by having the myriad of
questions springing from the young inquisitive
mind ignored by the adults completely, or
answered in such an abusive manner as to dis-
courage future inquiries from the child.
7. The general oppression of racism results in no
employment or underemployment of the adults in
the minority household, thus contributing to the
chronic feeling of fatigue, helplessness, and
general hopelessness that pervades the whole
atmosphere setting up a negative environment
for learning.
This is in direct contrast with the more affluent middle class home.
The pregnant mother generally receives a better quality prenatal care and better
total health care for the baby from the beginning. A proper diet for the child is
generally provided, resulting in better health than that of the ghetto child. In
the more spacious middle class home, the child's inquisitive nature is nurtured
and encouraged through play and communication with the adult members of the
38
household. The child is encouraged to verbalize and will find that the school
will tend to reinforce the verbal patterns he has heard at home. The affulent
child will, in all probability, be encouraged to ask questions, and to expand his
horizons prior to school. This child will often be taken out of his immediate
environment by his parents in a conscious effort to widen his experiences. To
quote Dr. J. McVicker Hunt, "The poor. . . Black or White typically do an
inadequate job of teaching their children the abilities and motives needed to cope
with school even though they love their children as much as any parents.
Educators from the majority society have often misunderstood and
therefore misinterpreted the inability, in some cases, of the poverty mother to
enrich her child’s environment as disregard for education and a lack of love and
concern for her child. This is not the case, as a study cited by Knowles and
Prewitt has shown. In this study of the attitudes of Black mothers, 73 percent
of the mothers from the lowest socio-economic group wanted college educations
for their children. Many ghetto parents, however, held firmly in the grip of
racism, under-employed or unemployed, are inadequately trained and in many
cases feel incapable of being a positive educational force in their children’s lives.
Overwhelmed by the "nitty gritty" problems of survival and the debilitating nature
of ghetto life, they tend to leave the job of education up to the schools. In many cases,
these schools are unable to meet the specialized educational needs of these inner-
city children. Given the generally poor condition of most urftan schools, it would
be overly optimistic and naive to expect the school to effectively undo the damage
39
of six years of environmental oppression. In most cases, the suppressive
environmental forces have not supplied the same kinds of experiences that middle
income children have received. The inner-city child, therefore, comes to
school ill-prepared to take advantage of the learning situation as it is structured.
By age six, when formal schooling begins for most minority children, much of
the damage is already done.
Joe Frost, editor of Early Childhood Education Rediscovered, states
that studies have found that disadvantaged children are often one to three years
behind when they arrive at school.28
Children of the ghetto are barely in "the
educational ball park" before they find that they have "struck out" of the
intellectual ball game. To make matters worse, not only does the inner-city
child tend to be behind when he reaches school age, but the schools also seem
unprepared to help him catch up. Fred Hechinger goes on to say in his book,
Pre-School Education Today , that "All evidence today indicates that children from
a home background that not only is economically and socially at the lowest level,
but lacks family orientation toward formal learning, are virtually excluded from
29success in school. " He also says, "They are preconditioned for failure. The
school, attuned to the middle class majority, seldom helps such children catch
up. It often actually widens the gap between success and failure. "30
40
The Coleman Report concurs that:
Schools bring little influence to bear that isindependent of his background and socialcontext; and. . . this very lack of anindependent affect means that the inequalitiesimposed on children by their home, neighbor-hood, and pure environment, are carried alongto become the inequalities with which theyconfront adult life at the end of school. -31
The findings of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
further support this premise. "For the many minority, and particularly for the
children of the racial ghetto, the schools have failed to provide the educational
experiences which could help overcome the affects of discrimination and
32deprivation. "
Probably the most important of many factors contributing to the schools'
general ineffectiveness in helping the economically deprived child, who generally
is part of the minority culture, is the schools' basically racist structure. They
are part of the vast institutional complex controlled by the majority society that
instills and perpetuates racism in this country. Dr. James Comer, psychiatrist
and Associate Dean of Yale Medical School, as well as professor of psychiatry
at the Yale Child Study Center, defines racism in our country in this manner:
Racism is a low level defense and adjustment
mechanism utilized by groups to deal with
psychological and social insecurities similar to
the manner in which individuals utilize psychic
defenses and adjustment mechanisms to deal
with anxiety. The potential for a racist adjust-
ment is rooted in personal anxiety and insecurity.
A society may promote and reward racism to
41
enable the group in control to obtain a sense ofpersonal adequacy and security at the expenseof the group with less control. Racism istransmitted from generation to generation as apositive social value, similar to patriotism,religion, and good manners. ^3
As it exists in this country, racism is probably one of the greatest social
sicknesses of modern times. It is also the most insidious when manifesting
itself in the form which the investigator calls "educational racism, " a sub-division
of institutional racism. It manifests itself in sub-standard facilities, poorly
trained and/or disinterested teachers, and less money allotted per capita for
Black children than for White. Under this system, the blame for poor academic
performance is placed on the victim, the inner city child, helplessly trapped in
the sub-standard school. This is rather like a doctor blaming a terminal cancer
patient for deliberately contracting a disease that is killing him. Doctors,
however, seem to be more logical than educators. When doctors are confronted
with a diseased patient, they operate and attempt to cut the diseased portion of
the body out, thus allowing the healthy part of the body to heal. Educators, on the
other hand, tend to allow these diseased areas of educational racism to grow and,
in some cases, encourage it to flourish, thus causing a proliferation of urban
school problems.
Dr. Kenneth Clark states in his book, Prejudice and Your Child:
42
There is a gulf between the American ideals ofdemocracy and brotherhood on one hand, and theexistence of racial prejudice, discrimination,and segregation on the other. The "AmericanCreed" which emphasizes the essential dignityof the human personality, the fundamental equalityof man. . . and the inalienable rights of freedom,justice and equal opportunity, is clearly contra-dicted by the denial of these to certain human beingsbecause of their race, religion, or nationalitybackground. The struggle between the moral forcesand the manifestations of racial prejudice has longinfluenced American society. . . this struggle seemsto have immobilized the constructive role of manyof our social institutions, such as schools. .
.34
The most important institution which should pledge itself to fight senseless
racism is the educational establishment, but, as Dr. Clark goes on to state:
Educational institutions and educators have not
really assumed an initiative in helping to free
Americans of their tenacious, pervasive andparticularly. . . subtle components of the social
disease racism; and it is education's problem. . .
education in the specific sense and. . . in a broadersense. It is the function of education to help free
human beings from the constrictions of superstition,
irrational fears and hatreds, and it is the primefunction of education. . . to attempt to liberate the
mind and spirit. 35
Harold Howe, Program Advisor in education for the Ford Foundation and former
U. S. Commissioner of Education, concurs with Dr. Clark on this issue. He
states, "There is a considerable amount of agreement that racism is widespread,
pervasive, rampant. . . and very much evident in the educational system of the
United States. " 36
43
One of the crudest hoaxes perpetuated
Pired through the educational system. This i
on minority people has trans-
is the myth that equality of opportunity
to avail one's self of quality education does in fact exist in this country, whenwhat really exists is compulsory education. Dr. Clark states:
Negroes in the ghetto have long been concernedwith the quality of their children’s education.There have been Committees for Better Schoolsin Harlem going back to the 1930’s. As theproportion of Negroes in schools increases,it becomes clear to everyone that the quality ofeducation decreases. 37
Being a product of a racist society, our schools are in conflict with their
own purpose, for while they purport to be the citadel of democracy and the means
by which the dream of upward mobility for minority groups can be fulfilled, they
are in fact reinforcing the status quo by undereducating the minorities and lower
socio-economic groups, thus dooming them to second class citizenship, while
miseducating the majority into having feelings of superiority. Consequently,
they do a disservice to all children.
"Too little, too late, to change my fate” might well be the cry of the
child of the ghetto, when summing up what little impact formal schooling will have
upon his future unless some kind of specialized intervention program is designed
to meet his particular needs. The child's future is pretty much determined by
two factors: the body which he is born with, which is relatively constant; and
the variable factor, the environment in which he is reared and educated. Some
time in the future, with the advances in the field of biochemistry, perhaps even
44
the physical aspects of the body will resnnnH ^uy win respond to greater modification. But fornow, we as educators must concentrate on enrichino- » •on enriching the environment. BenjaminBloom speaks of the importance of this: "A very favorable environment in the
first four years can affect intelligence by about 2.5 I.Q. polnts a year; whereasfrom eight to seventeen it will affect intelligence by only 0.4 points a year. -38
Dr. Martin Deutsch stresses the importance of an educational experience
for disadvantaged children prior to formal schooling. He states
:
I would say that some kind of antecedent experiencethat would compensate for the inadequacies withinthe home and the social structure would be verybeneficial and would be likely to help the child toachieve a positive adjustment to the demands ofschool.
. . a good preschool program wouldattempt to give the child the antecedent prepara-tions for school that the home community and atleast relative affluence gives to the middle classchild. . . the attempt would be to enrich thosedevelopmental areas most functional and operativein the school learning situation (survival skills),establishing both cognitive and attitudinal continuitybetween preschool and school years. ... 39
At about three or four years of age there is a periodwhich would roughly coincide with the early part ofwhat Piaget called the pre-operational stage ! It is
then that the child is going through the latest stagesof early socialization that it is required that he focushis attention and monitor auditory-visual stimuliand that he learns through language to handle simplesymbolic representations. It is at this three to fouryear old level that organized and systematic stimula-tion through a structured and articulated learningprogram might most successfully prepare the childfor the more formal and demanding structure of the
school. It is here at this early age that we canpostulate that compensation for prior deprivation canmost meaningfully be introduced and, most important,
45
there is considerably less that he has to becompensated for at this age than exists when afar more complex and less plastic child gets tothe first grade. 40
Reaching a child as early as possible is also important to Dr. Hunt,
who feels that from birth to year one the disadvantaged child is not inhibited too
much by ghetto life, for he is primarily immobile. If, by the second and third
year, however, he is not receiving enough sensory stimulation and varied
experiences, then retardation will begin to show.
In the third year of life this retardation can most easily be reversed
with an adequate enrichment program. He says:
Retardation which occurs during the second year,and even that during the third year can probablybe reversed to a considerable degree by supplyingproper circumstances in either a nursery school ora day care center for children of four or five—but
I suspect it would be preferable to start with childrenat three years of age. 41
What appears to be especially important for
compensatory preschool enrichment programs is
to foster their coordination of the imagery of
objects, persons, qualities, and relatively abstract
relationships with the spoken language symbolizing
them. This calls for providing perceptual encounters
. . . along with hearing and using the language
symbolizing them. 43
Dr. Hunt goes on to stress:
It is important to reach children early because it is
during the first four or five years of life that a child’s
development is most rapid and most subject to modifica-
tion. During this period a child acquires the abilities
on which his later abilities will be based. 43
46
We might raise the average level of intelligenceduring the next generation or two by about 30points of I. Q. providing we reach the child earlyenough. ^
Therefore, although children from depressed areas tend to test lower on I. Q.
tests than their more affluent counterparts, it is no longer tenable to just dismiss
them as inherently or irrevocably inferior. It has been found that these scores
can be appreciably increased through the proper kind of enrichment program if
it is administered early enough. The child whose I. Q. test is in the 80 percentile
range in a negative environment might well increase to as high as 120 if placed in
an enrichment program early enough. This vast growth could represent the
difference in a child's life between leading a productive life or one of unemploy-
ment and despair.
The bulk of evidence seems to be on the side of the early educational
program for disadvantaged children. But pitfalls do exist. The major one has
its roots in the same issue that plagues schools as a whole—racism. Many of
the designers and educators involved in compensatory programs are unable to
lock into the vast storehouse of prior skills, knowledge, and experiences of
poverty children, either because the programs are hastily conceived, middle
class in focus, or because the educators know so little about—and have so little
respect for—the culture and life styles of the urban poor that they are unable
to make the learning experiences of these programs relevant. They are unable
to accomplish what Dr. Hunt refers to as a "proper match. " A "proper match"
47
means merely: to make the experiences of the child relevant to the learning
experience going on in the program, thus hooking into the information, experiences
and skills the child already possesses. Educators must be sensitized to the
pitfalls of such labels as "culturally deprived. " Many educators of the dis-
advantaged have fallen prey to such labels when referring to their children. The
dangers In labels of this sort lie in the connotation that any culture other than of
the majority society is not only invalid but negative, and is something a child
must "get over" if education is to take place.
The "experts" in the educational system tend toview Black students as potential Whites with little
consideration given to their distinct culture andstyle of life. Educators have insisted, consciouslyor unconsciously, that Black children be educatedout of their "Blackness. " 45
Designers of these enrichment type programs should be ever mindful that they are
to be concerned with supplying the child with "survival skills" (skills to use to
survive in school), rather than middle class ethics and values. The two are not
synonymous. The ability to read is not inherently middle class. It is a survival
skill that will serve two purposes for the disadvantaged child: one, it will help
him be more successful in school academically, and, two, the academic prowess
will help his self esteem as well.
The breakthrough in the field of human growth and development, plus
the thrust of the "have-nots" to equalize the economic gap between the lower
socio-economic groups and that of the middle income groups, has tended to
focus on the school as an instrument by which equality may be attained. As the
48
push for equality by the racial minorities began to demand that government hand
over their natural birthright of equaiity of opportunity in housing, employment
and education, naturally the spotlight bearing down on the educational arena
revealed some of the inadequacies that existed. Even the educational establish-
ment itself had to deal with the problem. In the following abridged statement
issued by the Educational Policy Commission of the National Education Associa-
tion, it was stated that:
The NEA affirms the principle that the home andthe family are the basic units in our free societyand that parents have prime responsibility for thecharacter development of their children. It alsobelieves that the general system of universal publiceducation should be expanded. To these ends theAssociation recommends that opportunities forcompensatory education begin at age four for thosechildren who through economic or social deprivationmay be seriously impeded in their progress throughpublic school, and consequently in their participationin a democratic society. ... All children shouldhave the opportunity to go to school at the publicexpense beginning at age four. 46
NEA also stated in its Journal that most children could benefit from an earlier
education program:
Children who come to school today from the mostfavored homes, . . not necessarily the wealthiest
. . . those in which parents take the mostresponsible, rational, and appropriate roles in
raising children. . . homes which give love,
inspiration, challenge, support, and experience
. . . with universal early education, almost everychild would have a higher starting point in knowledgeand developed ability. 47
49
Opponents of early childhood education voice the fear that this program would
not only weaken and break down the family unit, but might prove dangerous with
the governmental involvement in the education of young children. Some have even
gone so far as to cite Hitler's youth schools and equate early childhood education
with the controlling of four-year-old minds. However, many responsible
educators in the field remind us, as Dr. Hymes states:
We assume that good homes can meet the needof young children. . . worse we assume thatall homes are good. We close our eyes to thechanges in the home life wrought by urbanizationand technology. . . many mothers of youngchildren are cooped up in city apartments,millions in commuter communities, and millionsof fine children live lonely lives. We prefer notto face up to the fact that 3. 7 million mothers of
children under age six are in the labor force. 48
Dr. Martin Deutsch favors a universal pre-kindergarten system for all children
because he feels that all children could benefit from an intervention program.
He says
:
There is every reason to believe that middle class
children would benefit too from the experiences of
an intervention program. . . there is much in
middle class afluent America that tends to destroy
individual identity. . . alienate young people fromany purpose outside themselves. At times in middle
class children, the need for status replaces the need
for accomplishment, fostering apathy toward. . .
intellectual achievement similar to. . . children whohave been subject to understimulation and
discrimination. 4^
Abraham Mas low found in his studies that so few people were fully "actualized, "
50
living and producing up to their potential, that he feels many different types of
deprivation exist, and earlier education is needed across the board. Some of
the various types of deprivation that Dr. Maslow speaks of are:
1* Developmental deprivation. According to Dr.Maslow, very few people, past or present, arefully "self-actualized, » or fulfilling themselvesto the fullest of their potential. A screening of3, 000 college students yielded but one studentthat could be classified as "self-actualized. "
In this sense, all children, or most children,suffer from developmental deprivation.
2. Physical deprivation. Millions of children areill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and suffer frommedical problems such as prolonged and inadequatesleep deprivation, inadequate dental care,inadequate medical care, and often have visual,auditory, and speech problems which go undetectedand untreated. "Dr. Montes orri urged thatenvironments of such children, including home andschool, be renewed: for the child makes himselffrom the elements of his environment. "
3. Psychological deprivation. Deprived childrenwho experience repeated rebuffs, failures andother traumatic experiences at home and school,develop poor self-concepts, weak self-discipline
and limited self-confidence. They often displayemotional malfunctioning and personality mal-formations. Their anxieties and frustrations maybe reflected in poor motivation and behavioral
disorders. Dr. Montessori recognized the child's
need for positive experiences for self mastery anda feeling that he or she could change or at least
have some influence upon manipulating one's
environment.
51
4* Intellectual deprivation. This type of deprivationoften manifests itself in impaired perceptual andcognitive processes. The ability to listen, tospeak, to read, write, reason, may all be affected.
5. Social deprivation. Social deprivation is the mostsubtle and universal deprivation of all, for it is thelack of opportunity for the child to meet and knowmembers of ethnic and cultural groups other thanhis own, because of segregated living patterns. 50
When examining the various types of deprivation that exist, one may well see a
valid issue in early childhood education for all children, for most children fall
into one or more of these categories of deprivation.
If everyone were convinced of the validity of pre-kindergarten education,
and if education for three- and four-year-olds became compulsory tomorrow,
an even greater problem would then exist. Where would all these children go to
school? Where would teachers trained to teach them be found? Where would
$2.75 billion, as estimated by the NEA's Educational Policies Commission in
1967, needed for additional salaries for these teachers be found, to say nothing
of the additional facilities needed.
We pay lip service to the needs of young children, but the following
facts show that this country's priorities are elsewhere: out of 12.5 million
children in the three to five year old age group, only 29.4 percent are in school,
while 70.6 percent are not in school. A breakdown by age would be as follows:*
Table V and the following paragraph come from statistics found in
Nursery-Kindergarten Enrollment of Children Under Six, Washington, D. C.
:
U. S. Government Printing Office, 1967.
TABLE V52
Percentage of Children Not In School
AELGroaj: Three Years Four Years Five Years
81% 26%
Only 29 states out of 52 provide state aid for kindergarten, and most of those 29
states provide only one-half, leaving the rest to be provided from other sources.
Twenty-one states do not provide any state aid for kindergarten at all. Absolutely
no state provides free public nursery school, therefore making it available only
to the more affluent. Operation Head Start, an educational program for pre-
schoolers from poverty areas, which is federally funded, has made a substantial
contribution. However, it does not begin to meet the tremendous need. Only
approximately one-seventh of those eligible for Head Start are given the privilege
of attending because of lack of facilities and lack of teachers. Dr. James Hymes
sums it up quite appropriately when he states:
The most serious problem facing early education is
simply that there is not enough of it. We call
youngsters under six "pre-school children. " They are
pre-school" only because we don't have schools for
them. . . . We have more "never-ins” than "drop-outs. "5 ’1'
In the wake of such immense problems, the feasibility of using television
to establish a "preschool of the air waves" became so attractive that in 1968 the
Carnegie Corporation of New York provided funds to Joan Ganz Cooney, a
documentary productor the National Educational Television, to evaluate the
feasibility of using the medium to teach preschool age children. This preliminary
study substantiated two facts: "One, that there was an audience of approximately
53
12 million children in the age range from three to five years of age; two, that
there was a greater need than ever before for a preschool experience for these
52children, " A subsequent proposal proposed by Mrs. Cooney pointed out:
1. 96 percent of American homes have TV sets;
2. 90 percent of American homes with annualincomes of less than $5,000 have at least onetelevision set;
3. young children between the ages of two and five
watch upward to fifty hours a week, logging a
possible 4,000 hours of viewing before reachingfirst grade.
The need for preschool education, the availability of television, and the shortage
of money as well as classroom space, made "classrooms without walls" a valid
concept.
Mrs. Cooney stated in her study, "Potential Uses of Television in
Preschool Education, ” that:
The national need for more and better educated
people, and the national demand that we give the
d isadvantage?? child a fair chance at the beginning
means that we cannot wait for the final and definitive
word from the researchers or until there are enough
teachers and classrooms to accommodate our pre-
school population. We must begin to search for new
means and techniques to solve our educational
problems. It is the recommendation of this report,
therefore, that television's potential for fostering
the intellectual and cultural development of young
children be fully tested and evaluated, beginning in
the near future. ^4
54
Dr. Jerome Bruner, a cognitive psychologist from Harvard, concur]
with Mrs, Cooney in his statement:
We cannot wait for the right answers before acting.We should look upon the first year of broadcastingfor pre-schoolers in the nature of an inquiry.There is no substitute for trying it (televisionteaching) and evaluating its effects, if we wish toknow whether or not television can be a valuabletool for promoting intellectual and cultural growthin our pre-school population. 55
Early in 1968, Mrs. Cooney wrote a proposal entitled, "Television
for Pre-School Children: A Proposal," in which she summed up the thrust of
her work:
We propose the creation of a daily, hour-longprogram for pre-school children to be carriednationally on education, and possibly, somecommercial stations. While the program is
intended for all children, the background, problems,and needs of disadvantaged children would be keptuppermost in the minds during the planning andpromotion of all programs. The series would beimaginatively produced and entertaining with thebroad goal of fostering intellectual and cultural
development.
In March, 1968, with Mrs. Cooney at the helm, a staff of creative
television production people and motivated educators were assembled to create
and produce an entertaining and educational experimental TV series for pre-
schoolers. Thus the Children's Television Workshop was established. Endorsed
and funded by three of the most prestigious educationally oriented institutions,
the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Office of Education of the
Federal government, the Children's Television Workshop (to be known from this
point on as C.T. W. ), began the awesome, three-faceted project for which it had
55
been established and founded; the research, development, and finally, the airing
of a nationwide television program designed for preschoolers. This creative
dream at the end of the rainbow was to become the now famous "Sesame Street"
program.
CHAPTER III
HOW SESAME STREET ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT EDUCATIONAL RACISM
It Works !
For the first three broadcast seasons, Sesame Street's curriculum goals
tended to be highly cognitive in nature. This was not by chance. The producers
chose this educational route because the show would have to be evaluated for
effectiveness at some given point, and the cognitive curriculum goals were most
easily testable and less controversial than ones highly affective in nature. Dr.
Gerald S. Lesser of Harvard, Chairman of the National Board of Advisors to
C. T. Wo, reflects:
Our emphasis on cognitive skills was based upona series of important premises which also guided
our work as we translated goals into television
programming. Because television reaches a
mass national audience, we had to aim to teach
only certain universal goals that we hoped all
children would achieve. We assumed that all
children would learn to read and to write, for
example, but we did not expect each child to play
the violin or to become an architect or a poet,
these being particular goals defined by the
individual child's aptitudes, interests, and
experiences. ^
The Educational Testing Service, a non-profit educational measurement and
research organization in Princeton, New Jersey, was hired by C. T. W. to test
the effectiveness of Sesame Street in the following areas:
57
1.
What overall is the impact of Sesame Street?
2„ What are the moderating effects of age, sex,prior achievement level, and socio-economicstatus (SES) on the impact of Sesame Street?
3. Do children at home watching Sesame Streetbenefit in comparison with children at homewho do not watch it ?
4. Do children in preschool classrooms benefitfrom watching Sesame Street as far as theirschool curriculum ?
5. Do children from Spanish-speaking homesbenefit from Sesame Street ?
6. What are the effects of home backgroundconditions on the impact of Sesame Street?2
The E. T. S. research laid to rest the feeling that one series could not cut
across socio-economic and ethnic lines. The group of children tested was
comprised of three to five year olds from five different localities. The children
were chosen from Boston, Durham, North Carolina, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and
a rural area in the northeastern part of California. Overall the sample included:
1. More boys than girls
2. More lower class than middle class
3. More disadvantaged Blacks than disadvantaged Whites
4. More four year olds than other age groups.
Three major findings of the study were summarized as follows:
58
1. Children who watch the most learn the most. Theamount of learning that took place, that is, the gainthe child showed between being tested for certainskills before watching Sesame Street and beingtested for the same skills after, increased inrelation to the amount of time the child watched theprogram.
2. The skills that received the most time and attentionon the program themselves were with rare exception. . . the skills. . . best learned. . . . For example,more time (13. 9%) was devoted to letter-relatedskills than to any other single subject. It was in thearea of letters and numbers that the children's gainswere most dramatic. In addition to acquiring skillsthat were directly and deliberately taught. . . therewas some transfer of learning. . . . Some childrenlearned to do things such as recognize core wordsor write their own names, which were not taughton the program.
3. The program did not require formal adult supervisionin order for children to learn in the areas the programcovers. Children viewing Sesame Street at homeshowed gains as great as and in some cases greaterthan children who watched in school under the super-vision of a teacher. This finding has special
significance in light of the fact that more than four-fifths of all children three and four years of age donot attend any kind of school, and more than one-
quarter of all five year olds do not. ^
The finding that the more the children watched the more they learned
held true in all categories no matter the sex, age, or socio-economic status or
regional location, mental age, or even whether the child was in school or a home
viewer. Certain groups, however, did gain more than others.
59
The three year old children gained the most. Thethree year old children who viewed the show a greatdeal had higher attainments at post tests than thosefour and five year olds who viewed the show less,even though the younger children scored lower at thepre-test than the older children. This finding hasimportant implications for education in general forit suggests that three year old children are able tolearn many skills that we have traditionally intro-duced at later ages. . . a similar phenomenaappeared with advantaged and disadvantaged children.Although the disadvantaged children started out withconsiderably lower achievement scores. . . a greatdeal surpassed the middle class children who watchedonly a little.
**
More importantly, in light of the value placed on successful intervention type
preschool programs, the E. T. S. test results strongly imply that the educational
gap that usually separates advantaged and disadvantaged children can effectively
be reduced by appropriate television teaching. This is of great importance to
both educators and television producers. The test findings also suggest that
children whose first language is not English find Sesame Street effective in
teaching certain skills. In Phoenix, the very small sample of children from
Spanish-speaking homes made more spectacular gains than any other sub-group
of children. Because of the small size of the sample, the finding in this area in
the first year was not conclusive. 5
The Measurement Instrument and Analysis
E. T. S. developed measurement instruments specifically geared to the
educational goals established by the producers of Sesame Street. Listed below
60
are the eight major tests and sub-test areas:
BODY PARTS TESTPointing to Body PartsNaming Body PartsFunction of Body Parts (Point)
Function of Body Parts (Verbal)
LETTERS TESTRecognizing Letters
Naming Capital Letters
Naming Lower Case LettersMatching Letters in WordsRecognizing Letters in WordsInitial Sounds
Reading Words
FORMS TESTRecognizing FormsNaming Forms
NUMBERS TESTRecognizing NumbersNaming NumbersNumerosity
Counting
Addition and Subtraction
(Matching Subtest for letters, numbers, and forms)
RELATIONAL TERMS TESTAmount Relationships
Size Relationships
Postition Relationships
SORTING SKILLS TEST
CLASSIFICATION SKILLS TESTClassification by Size
Classification by FormClassification by NumberClassification by Function
PUZZLES TEST
61
A number of examples of the type of approach taken by the E. T. S. Test
Battery are given in Appendix A. a pre-test was given to the children
prior to Sesame Street’s broadcast, and a post-test of essentially the same
material was given the same children after viewing 130 shows.
The tests were administered to each child individually by an indigenous
community person who was hired and trained by E. T. S. for this testing project.
Careful preparation was made in order that optimum results could be gained
from children who were often ”test-shy” and therefore did not tend to perform
well on tests. Certain criteria had to be met in site selection:
1. The area had to be served by a VHF educational
TV station
2. The television station in the test area had to
telecast Sesame Street between 9:00 a. m. and
10:00 a. m. daily, for those times were judged
to be the times that the child could most likely
be in control of the set and his ability to learn
was probably highest
3. The site must contain a sizeable number of inner-
city children, the primary interest of C. T. W.
The next hurdle was to get not only community approval for the testing,
but also cooperation and participation. Obtaining the community's cooperation
in the five test areas involved five different processes. In Philadelphia it took
62
only a notification of the research activities to the local public. In Boston.
Durham, and Phoenix, however, community leaders met and discussed what
E. T. S. and Sesame Street were attempting and what its effect on their
community would be. In the less militant areas the process went smoothly once
Headstart leaders agreed to cooperate. In the more militant areas however,
a greater follow-up at a local level was needed.
Major concerns of their communities were thatthe E. T. S. tests be specific to the show ratherthan focusing upon ’'intelligence" or "aptitude";that the children not be compared invidiously withmiddle class, more advantaged children, and thatpeople hired to conduct the evaluation be membersof the local community. That is, E. T. S. wasconcerned in discovering whether the show achievedits goals. . . increasing intelligence was not one ofits goals nor was there a need to compare viewersfrom various economic groups. . . the overall needwas to compare viewers and non-viewers withineach group.
®
E. T. S. considered the use of local people as testers an asset in insuring that
children would be more comfortable with people they knew and would respond
better to the tests. The children were divided into groups of quartiles according
to how much they viewed the show, ranging from Q-l—rarely or never watched
—
to Q-4—watched more than five times a week. (This could happen in most
localities, for the show is broadcast twice daily Monday through Friday. In
some cases the whole week’s shows are also rebroadcast back-to-back five
hours on Saturday morning.
)
63
A most interesting test result was the tact that Q-4, or the highest
viewing audience quartile, also had the highest pre-test score, therefore
beginning the viewing season ahead of the rest of the groups; while Q-l, or the
least "media-minded" of the children, performed lower than Q-4 children
all the tests. The investigator feels that this is because the Q-4 children
already geared to watching and learning from television so that they were primed
for this kind of learning experience. The writer is very careful to stress that
on
were
this is her own hypothesis and E. T. S. made no supportive comments to this
fact. There was a total of 203 test items and, on the grand total of the post-test,
Q-l, the children who watched least, gained 19 points (probably due in part to
natural maturation); Q-2 gained 29 points; Q-3 gained 38 points; and Q-4, viewers
who watched Sesame Street five times or more per week, had a gain of 47 points,
a difference of 28 points over the seldom or non-viewers of Sesame Street. (See
Appendix B.)
When the separate tests were analyzed, the trend continued. The
greatest gains were again made by the most frequent viewers.
The greatest gains were in letters, numbers,and classification tests [See Appendix E], . .
complex statistical analyses were conducted
to determine whether the observed difference
could have occurred by chance. . . or were, as
they appeared to be, largely a function of viewing,
. . . the amount of viewing proved to be by far
the most important variable. . . its effect was
equally felt irrespective of sex and whether the
child watched at home or at school.7
64
The Age Cohorts Study was devised to further isolate the effects of
frequency of viewing on the children. Two matched groups of children age-wise
were compared. Group one consisted of children fifty-three to fifty-eight
months of age at the time of the pre-testing; group two, fifty-three to fifty-eight
months of age at the time of post-testing. In other aspects these groups were
matched as closely as possible in important matters like previous attainment,
I. Q. ,age, home background. They also lived in the same community. Each
group contained more than 100 disadvantaged children who were not attending
school.
The pre-test scores of group one (before the
children could have watched Sesame Street)
were compared with the post-test scores of
group two after group two children had watchedthe program. The frequent viewers in grouptwo, children in Q-3 and Q-4, scored about 40
points higher on the 203 common items than the
comparable children in group one who had never
watched the show [see Appendix D]. . . Infrequent
viewers, Q-l, in group two differed by only 12
points from comparable children in group one
who had not viewed Sesame Street at all. . . . the
frequent viewers made large and important
gains. 8
Although age didn’t seem to be a factor in the amount of viewing done
by the child, it did influence certain test scores. On the pre-tests, three year
olds tested lower than four year olds, who tested below five year olds, as would
be expected. However, on the post-tests, the scores reversed in terms of
points gained, even among disadvantaged children.
65
Although the most frequent viewing three yearold group started out at pre-test lower than thefive year old group, by the time of the post-testthree year olds who viewed most frequentlyscored higher on the average than four yearolds in Q^l, Q-2, and Q-3, and higher than fiveyear olds in Q-l, and Q-2; even three yearolds who watched only two and three times aweek gained a great deal compared to otherage groups [see Appendix E].§
Age also affected certain test scores. For example, three year olds
gained more than five year olds in numbers, and five year olds had the greatest
gains in transfer of learning; that is, they began to read words and did better
in the tests for initial sounds. The transfer of learning skills were taught in a
more indirect manner on Sesame Street than directly cognitive learning skills.
Goals that were indirectly taught were betterlearned by older viewers. . . transferredlearning was more apparent among them. . .
generally where specific knowledge and skills
were taught directly, young children gainedmore than the others. 0
These findings seem to confirm Piaget's theory that, while there are
set learning stages, an enriched environment with potential learning experiences
can help the child advance more rapidly than if he is left entirely on his own. He
also stressed that these stages are only linked very loosely with chronological
age.
In studying the 169 advantaged children it was found that they tended to:
66
1. Test higher on the pre-test than other groups.
2. Watch more of the show than the disadvantaged
children*
3. Gain more from a relatively small amount of
viewing than other groups.
Again, Piaget’s correlation might be drawn that the backlog of information and
experience the child brings with him to a learning experience helps him in
making "new accommodations" and reaching a new level of "equilibration, " as
discussed in Chapter 1 1. The higher test scores of the advantaged child can no
longer be held up and interpreted as proof of their intrinsic intellectual superiority,
for the E. T. S. findings have shown that with proper enrichment and positive
intervention, the gap between the disadvantaged and the advantaged child can be
effectively lessened. They also showed that intervention can make a difference
in the intellectual growth of all children, no matter what their socio-economic
level.
The 43 Spanish-speaking children included in the study had incredible
gains but, owing to the small size of the sample, E. T. S. authorities were
very cautious about the conclusions that were drawn from them. C. T. W.
,
however, used these findings as a basis for investigating and eventually incorpora-
ting a bi-lingual component into the production of Sesame Street.
67
The rural children surveyed, whose parents tended to be better
educated than urban poor, tested rather low on the pre-test and made great
gains from viewing.
Teachers queried about the use of Sesame Street in schools were divided
along two lines. Many felt it should be used at home only and wasted valuable
school time, while others felt it was a worthwhile addition to the school curriculum.
C. T. W. ’s philosophy is geared toward reaching the child who is not in a formal
school setting; however, teachers who wish to use the show are encouraged to
do so. But because Sesame Street has reached a vast number of preschool
children and has successfully taught them broad areas of the early school
curriculum, it is my belief that early childhood teachers should at least have a
working knowledge of Sesame Street in order that they can be conversant with
it and understand the references to the show made by their pupils.
Another interesting sidelight of the survey was that children whose
mothers tended to watch the show with them and talk to them about it learned
the very most. This element of reinforcement from someone the child loves is
a shining example of why machines will never surpass warm human beings in the
educational process. One cannot overlook the positive effects on the self
image of a child when he or she is able to show a parent or surrogate parent
figure what he or she has learned. Another interesting finding was that in these
same homes where the reinforcement activities took place as a matter of course,
the parents tended to have somewhat higher expectations for their children. As
68
Dr. Samuel Ball, the director of E. T. S. evaluation, said upon announcing
these results, "I think we've shown in this evaluation of Sesame Street that
television can have a profound effect upon the learning of three through five year
old children from widely diverse backgrounds, including a strong positive effect
on disadvantaged children. 1,11
It is safe to say, therefore, after analyzing the results of the Educational
Testing Service findings for the first season, that Sesame Street does work in
teaching certain simple and complex cognitive skills. But Sesame Street teaches
other things, which are not as easily testable, in the affective area as well.
These will be discussed in the next section as "Hidden Curriculum. "
Hidden Curriculum
Just as Sesame Street's curriculum goals include a visual discrimination
game called "Embedded or Hidden Figures, " where the child studies a picture
and then through keen visual discrimination attempts to see letters or numbers
hidden in the picture, the writer feels that a close examination of the program
also shows a hidden curriculum, which is highly affective in nature and deals
with the following things:
1. Raising Self Image
2. Racial Tolerance
3. Teachers' Attitudes
The child's self concept and his academic prowess are both interlocking
and self-feeding. As a child feels better about himself, often his ability to
69
achieve academically increases; and as his ability to achieve increases, he tends
to feel better about himself. It is not an either/or proposition. The whole
child needs achievement on both levels. In a technical success -oriented
society like ours, the emphasis on the cognitive side of learning often tends to
outweigh the importance of the affective side of learning. It is a very White,
middle class concept that if you can read, write and have ambition, you can be
president, if not of the country, at least of General Motors. In most cases all
children are in need of more in the realm of education of self. They need to be
taught how to find out who they are and then to like themselves once they know.
In the particular case of the minority child, affective learning is
imperative in order to help overcome the psychologically crippling effects of
racism, and instill in the child the courage needed to attempt to achieve on a
cognitive level. In this section the investigator will look at some of the very
concrete types of situations which were incorporated into the show to encourage
affective development of some of the responses by children and parents which
the writer, as Susan, have received.
70
Raising Self Image
One method of boosting the self image of children came out of some
sound criticism of the show by John Holt, who felt that we tended to use the
children as "props” in year one. As a product of a traditional educational system
and as an ex-teacher myself, it was very hard for me to stop being in charge.
We talked this point out in production meetings with the director and producer
and decided that, whenever possible, children would initiate the action and
would no longer be given scripted lines. In effect, each bit would have to hold
up on its own merit; we would attempt to elicit answers, and then get out of the
way and let learning happen, instead of waiting for a scripted answer. We had
to rethink our whole attitude toward "teaching" and attempt to be a guide for the
children rather than an authoritative figure with all the answers. This particular
criticism, when acted upon, had an additional benefit: it tended to eliminate
those scripted bits in which the educational concept was muddy, for if the
children in the studio could not respond in an unscripted manner to a bit, then
most probably neither could children at home.
In-house testing substantiated that we were on the right track in eliciting
unscripted answers for the children at home and in viewing centers. Appeal
research, as demonstrated by Drs. Lang Rust and Lutrelle Horne, showed that
children were turned off by adults talking in a didactic manner, but were much
more attentive when other children were in charge of a bit. Thus, for example
Table VI (following page) shows how attention levels dropped in show 167 during
71
TABLE VI
Excerpt from Attention Levels of Segments of Show 167
Production Method
Muppets
Street Scenes(Live Cast £ Big Bird)
Spanish
. Average VisualSegment Attention Level
Ernie £ Cookie 88(Apples)
Little Eird 87"Next to"Bert £ Ernie • 83
•
(Jelly Beans)Monsters Sounds 82Grover £ Soo 76(Bird)
Kermit £ Professor 70(Part 2)
Kermit £ Professor 61(Part 1)
Average 77
Susan Introduces V 65Bob Introduces V 58
Oscar £ Gordon 59Make VHooper, Bob, £ Big 53
Bird £ BoxesHooper, Bob, £ Big 59
Bird £ BoxesSusan Sorting — 76
ShapesRhythmic Clapping 93
Bob £ Children Sing 89
Bob £ Children Sing 92
Bob £ Susan Body- 86
Parts Song
’ Average 77
Mano-Hand 68
62Introduction £
Theme Song
72
bits that consisted privily „f an adult speaking, and^ picked ^^with rhythmic clapping and singing action which involved other children.
Having children give answers has a definite effect on the self image of
the viewers. Black children seeing other Black children give the correct answer
are exposed to what Hunt calls modelling. Thus, an observer at a Black day care
center could report the following anecdote: After seeing a Black child on Sesame
Street give the correct answer, a Black child turned to his teacher and said,
"That Black boy knew the answer, he's like me!" A response of this type is
very important to the researcher and teacher alike because it implies that this
child will feel that perhaps he can also know the right answer. The Black boy
on Sesame Street provided a positive model for him.
If we were going to facilitate creative thinking in our viewers, we had
to avoid another educational sandtrap: the ’’one right answer" syndome. Writers
consciously designed situations in which more than one answer was correct,
although this was not without pitfalls. Actress Charlotte Ray, who played Molly,
a postal worker (hence a mailwoman, not a mailman), for an entire season, was
playing a rhyming game with some children in which she spoke a sentence and the
children filled in the missing word:
I use a hammer to drive a nail,
but to scrub the floor, I use a mop and .
One Black child quickly responded "Bucket. " Undaunted, Molly began again
73
I use a hammer to drive a nail,but to scrub the floor, I use a mop and
The Black child answered louder ’’Bucket!"
Molly tried it several more times, but she was running out of time and
tape, and finally said, "No, no, Sean, the word is ’pail.
The child looked at her squarely and said, "In my house, my mother
uses a bucket. "
This bit was aired just as it happened because the producer felt the self
image of children at home would benefit greately from a segment in which the
adult was corrected by a child, and the child supplied an alternative answer.
In one of the segments I was given to do, I was given the game song
called "One of These Things is Not Like the Others," which I sang while the
camera panned across a board divided into four sections: three triangles and
one parallelogram. I became hysterical with laughter when I was instructed by
the producer to call them by name because I had to struggle to pass high school
geometry, but I managed the bit. At the end of the bit I said, "Did you find which
one was different?" As I spoke the camera followed my hand: "Triangle,
triangle, triangle, parallelogram. ’’ I ended by saying much more slowly,
"par-al-lel-o-gram—you got that ? Lay that on your daddy when he comes home. "
Some weeks later we received a letter on company stationary from a
proud father stating that his three -year-old son rushed to the door when he
came in and said, "Parallelogram, daddy. "
74
His father said, "What?"
"Parallelogram. Susan told me to tell you that. "
One can imagine the pride and raised sense of ego in that child when his
father told all the neighbors that he could say "Parallelogram. "
Not all of the anecdotes concerning self-image are humorous. A teacher
in a day care center in Harlem told us about one child's response to a group of
teenage Black singers and dancers called "Listen, My Brother " who perform
very modern rock-and-roll versions of the ABC's and counting on Sesame Street.
Upon looking at a close-up of one of the young Black fellows in the group, a
small child rushed to the TV set and embraced it and said, "That's my daddy. "
Whether that child needed a daddy at that point, or it was simply important for
that child to see somebody on the screen that looked like him, is uncertain, but
if it fulfilled a need in the child, it was valuable.
Racial Tolerance
My 3-1/2 year old sone the other day knocked
on his Mommy's bulge and asked, "When that
baby cornin' out?" To which she replied,
"Soon, I hope—why?" He answered, "Because
I wonder what color it's going to be—on Sesame
Street they come in all colors !"
—from a letter to CTW
Many of the bits on Sesame Street are directed towards reeducating
White children to the multi-cultural world into which they are growing. One of
the tentative findings of the ETS follow-up study was that two-year Q4 viewers
75
tended to have positive attitudes toward adults and children of races other than
their own. Through integrated casting, Sesame Street made a conscious effort
to counter the incorrect tendencies of commercial television in regard to the
social context and work roles assigned to Blacks.
That network television in general and network children's programming
in particular have not fully realized the potential impact of integrated casting
has been pointed out by a number of studies. A content analysis of Black and
minority treatment on network children’s programming conducted by an
organization called Black Efforts for Soul in Television (BEST) found the following
discrepancies, among others:
1. Black and other minority characters make up asmall percentage of characters, 7% and 2%respectively;
2. Over 60% of the shows with human characters
have no Black or minority characters at all;
no show has only Black or other minority
characters;
3. Blacks and other minorities rarely appear in
work situations, while whites often appear as
managers, professionals, law officers, workersand bums
;
4. Blacks who are major characters are depicted
generally with positive attributes, while whites
are shown with both positive and negative traits;
5. There are several Black heroes, but no Black
villains;
76
6. The occasional Black leader has a white co-leader, while most shows have white leaders;
7„ Non-American and non—white cultures arereferred to negatively almost four out of fivetimes;
8. Indians and Asians are almost always treatedas negative stereotypes;
9. Only occasionally does a good character speakwith an accent, or a dialect, while over halfthe villains speak with accents, most commonlyGerman or Russian;
10. Most shows have no interaction between races,and in most cases where there are integrated
groups, there is one Black among the group;
11. In the two shows with Black stars, Blacks inter-
act only with white characters;
12. Race is never mentioned or discussed;
13. All figures of authority, or sources of informa-
tion, e.g.
,
on shows designated as educational,
are white.
In "Three Seasons of Blacks on Television" Joseph R. Dominick and
Bradley S. Greenberg of Michigan State University analyzed the emergence of
Blacks on network television in four broad categories: dramatic shows, variety
shows, game shows, and commercials. While they found that there was a
systematic increase in the use of Blacks in commercials, they also concluded
that:
77
The typical Black in a commercial in the currentseason appears in a public service announcementor a promotion.
. . usually does not speak or holdthe product, seldom is the announcer, and is mostlikely pictured with whites. 13
An interesting finding was that, while the number of characters in ads without
Blacks ranged from 1. 6 in 1967 to 1. 9 in 1969, the number of characters in ads
with Blacks ranged from 10. 0 to 6. 0.14
Their findings about the characterizations
of Blacks in dramatic shows is presented in Table VII. The authors concluded
that:
These data suggest that Black actors, especiallyin night time drama, are in roles that could be
interchanged with white actors.
It seems the portrayal of Blacks in realistic Blackroles is yet to come. As Ivan Dixon of ’Hogan’s
Heroes' pointed out: 'The industry feels a need to
project Black images, but they really don't knowhow. It's kind of confusing on the part of film
producers basically because they still don't really
comprehend what and where we really are.
'
Greenberg and Hanneman tested a series of hypotheses concerned with
the increasing number of Blacks on television and the impact of this increase
on racial attitudes. They found that:
Blacks watched more programs featuring Blacks
than did whites.
Whites thought television was fairer to Blacks
and Latin Americans in newscasts than did Black
viewers.
TABLE VII78
Characterizations of Blacks in Dramas
1967 1968 1969
Daytime (number of blacks) 25 32Prime Time (number of blacks) 40 74 70
Major Role (Day)
Major Role (Night)8%
63%16%
45%47%20%
Minor Role (Day) 28% 47% 29%Minor Role (Night) 30% 46% 31%
Background Role (Day) 64% 37% 24%Bakeground Role (Night) 7% 7% 49%
Females (Day) 60% 44% 44%Females (Night) 40% 28% 30%
Gave Orders (Day) 8% 13% 18%Gave Orders (Night) 25% 28% 30%
Took Orders (Day) 12% 13% 18%Took Orders (Night) 43% 39% 53%
Reference to Race (Day) 0% 6% 41%Reference to Race (Night) 40% 16% 13%
Touched Another (Day) 35% 19% 41%Touched Another (Night) 38% 40% 39%
Seen Alone (Day) 4% 0% 3%Seen Alone (Night) 0% 0% 3%
Seen with Whites (Day) 40% 34% 33%Seen with Whites (Night) 70% 35% 39%
Seen with Blacks (Day) 12% 6% 20%Seen with Blacks (Night) 0% 19% 9%
Seen with Both (Day) 44% 60% 45%Seen with Both (Night) 30% 46% 50%
Source: T. R. Dominick and Bradley S. Greenberg, "Three Seasons of Blacks
on Television, " Unpublished paper, Michigan State University, May 1970, p. 14.
79
Blacks found television to be a more realisticportrayal of life than did whites.
Antagonistic whites "saw" more Blacks ontelevision than did more favorable white viewers.
Antagonistic whites believed TV to be fairer toBlacks than did more favorable whites.
16
The general tendency of casting TV Blacks in roles indistinguishable from TV
Whites, coupled with the startling finding that Blacks found television to be a
more realistic portrayal of reality than Whites, leads one to the question of how
Black and White children are receiving the picture of reality being presented
on commercial television. The BEST report pointed out that only six of the 47
segments monitored had any significant or substantive relationships between
Black and Wnite characters.^ The further incongruities in the social contexts
in which TV Blacks are portrayed, and in the general absence of realistic work
roles, does nothing to prepare White children for what they will encounter in the
next decades.
Certainly, many Whites who as children were led to believe that they
were innately superior to Blacks by racist institutions like schools or the
television media find great difficulty as adults coping with minority adults of
equal or superior intellectual ability. Many a Black has had :o contend with a
Wnite superior who could not cope with his or her ability. The traits that in
Whites would be considered positive, such as self-confidence, intelligence, and
80
ambition, are considered negative in Blacks, as traits such as "pushy,"
"arrogant, » or "smart-alecky. »
Just as the ages between three and five are proper for cognitive inter-
vention, they are also a good time to help a child shape positive attitudes toward
people of other races and cultures than his own. Children at this age are
beautifully unaffected by racism if left alone. They observe specific racial
characteristics at face value, attaching no negative value judgements. For
example, my kinky hair (which was the bane of my existence as a child because
it was not straight like Caucasian hair) was thought to be beautiful by a small
boy named Adam, whose grandmother told me the following story in a supermarket
one day: Adam went to his mother after observing a close-up of my head and
asked her, "Mommy, my hair is curly like Susan’s, right?" When she said yes,
he said, "Then take the comb and frizz it up some more to look more like hers !"
While on summer tour in Atlanta, a mother told me that her daughter had rushed
into the kitchen after a close-up of my face and asked breathlessly, "Mommy,
Mommy, do I have any of that stuff in my skin that Susan has ?" When the mother
replied, "Yes, a little, " the child breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank
Goodness !"
Another response to Sesame Street's efforts to promote racial tolerance
is symbolized in the following letter received by the show, in which a New Jersey
mother reported that her four-year-old daughter said to her:
81
'Susan and Gordon are bad people. They’redifferent from us. Their hair and skin are allfunny. Some days later the child reported,'Mommy, Susan and Gordon aren't really funnyor bad. Now I know them, and every day theymake me feel happy inside.'
The racial understanding Sesame Street seems to be promoting is an added
bonus. "We get lots of letters from parents," says Sesame Street's creator, Joan
Ganz Cooney, "telling us things like "I foresee a world in which there's racial
harmony in 20 years, because you’re bringing it to our children in this show. '"
The producers of Sesame Street made a very important decision at the
very beginning: locating the show in an inner city neighborhood with old brown-
stones and lots of trashcans. Many suburban children are sheltered from this
type of neighborhood by their parents, and the setting of the show provides a
window to the world for Whites, while helping the inner city child to relate more
to us as his neighbors. The almost magic effects of the show were related to me
by CED's San Francisco coordinator: Some children from a country day school
in the suburbs of San Francisco were brought into the inner city for a trip to
the museum. Going into the inner city caused much fear and trepidition on the
part of school officials and parents. When they hit the ghetto neighborhood that
surrounded the museum, the children on the bus became so excited that no one
on the bus understood what they were saying. They were jumping up and down,
saying, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Finally the teacher asked them,
"Thank you for what?" And they all answered, "For bringing us to Sesame
Streetf"
82
A young woman (White) with whom the writer grew up told me this
story about her son. When the first Black couple moved, into their block she
knew that some of her neighbors weren't too excited about welcoming a Black
family into the neighborhood, but she was hesitant about bursting in on them
until they had gotten settled. She was more or less trying to find a way not to
portray herself as the block "liberal. " But her young son solved the whole
problem for her. As soon as he saw the Black couple going toward the house,
he rushed over to them. Before she could catch up to him, she overheard him
saying, "Hi! Do you know Susan and Gordon? Is this where Sesame Street
begins ?" Black people to him meant something very positive. This same Black
couple had a daughter about David's age, and they struck up an instant friendship,
soon going off to look in all the trashcans for Oscar.
Having a distinctly Black Muppet was another effort to promote racial
tolerance.
Dear Susan,
I watch Sesame Str. but Rosevelt
Franklin hasn't been on for a long time.
I miss him.
I'm 4 years old. I have two of your
records. They are fun to listen to, but
now my record player is broken. My Dad
is going to fix it. I'm going to go to school
with my friend this year.
Love,
Jenny
Roosevelt was created by Matt Robinson. He uses Black English, for which
the Workshop has come under a great deal of fire from "educators" who feel
we should attempt to promote standard English-the thing they seem unable to
understand is that we are promoting a good feeling about self that is not at the
expense of others. Roosevelt sounds Black, moves like Black children do, and
he always knows the correct answers to the questions his mother and other
children ask him. His mother (whose voice I do) said with great pride at the
end of a counting piece: "Mm-m-mumphf, Roosevelt sure does know his numbers !"
The most important thing about Roosevelt is that always knows the correct answer,
whether he talks in standard or nonstandard English. By his use of Black
English, he is much more believable to the target audience. This ethnic identity
is an important part of the show. The bit was done to a tune from the Black
experience, "Hambone, Hambone, Where ya been?" Matt Robinson wrote this
particular bit with the specification that he and I would do the voices. Tibs writer was
present at the taping where Jim Henson was working to lip-synchronize the
previously recorded voices with the Muppets' actions and pointed out to him that
a Black mother would say, nMm-m-mumphf, Roosevelt sure does know his
numbers, M with her hand on her hip. Henson stopped the taping to re-wire the
mother Muppet. This is an example of how the cast is actively involved in
making the show as real as possible. In fact, the cast is as actively involved in
the show as possible. Another Roosevelt piece, in which he shows his mother
that he can spell his name, is a Blues in the John Lee Hooker tradition. Still
84
another is patterned after Ray Charles' "Nighttime is the Right Time, " with
three Black girl Muppets singing da-da-do-day in the background. Thus,
Sesame Street doesn't just tell a child that he is permitted to be Black, it lets
him see and hear things that are familiar to him presented in a positive way.
The producers do not present this material in an apologetic way and are not
surprised when they are roundly criticized for it.
Gentlemen:
We are a white, lower middleclass family;one of our children being a two year old whodearly loves your Sesame Street program. Mydaughter watches Sesame Street twice a day fivedays a week and I usually watch it with her.While I find that Sesame Street is basically a fine
program—entertaining as much as it is educational,I do have a point to raise.
As I have viewed each show it has becomeincreasingly obvious to me that most of the "real"people who participate in the show from the
children to guest singers and singing groups, areblack. Since most of your viewers are not blackand do not live in ghettos this is an unfair represen-tation of life being shown to the young viewers.
Certainly there must be talented Orientals,
Indians, Europeans (to name a few) who are verymuch a part of American life who would be assets
to your show and bring it more into perspective.
No one group or life situation should have
preference especially when dealing with young,
impressionable minds who take all you present
them as Gospel.
Because of the otherwise good quality of
Sesame Street, I hope some changes relative
to the above can be made.
—A letter from Alexandria, Va.
85
To Whom it may concern:
I would like to start by saying that your showis very good for small children. My son is twoyears old. He has been watching the show for awhile and I feel it has helped with his numbersand the alphabet. An hour is a little long for achild to sit still. However, Sesame Street is
able to keep his attention for quite a while.
Although he likes most of the puppets, BigBird seems to be his favorite. Believe it or not,
at 9:00 he lets me know it's time for SesameStreet by calling for Big Bird. Then, when it's
over, he is looking for Big Bird again. I think
some of the monsters scare him (not Cookie
Monster). Some are creepy enough to scare
anyone.
It's true that children learn by repetition,
but do you have to do a skit (or whatever) exactly
the same way twice in one day. It seems as if you
can’t come up with enough ideas. I have also
noticed that you repeat the same thing two or three
days in a row. Of course you understand I only
mean parts of the show, and not most of it.
I believe there has been a change since Sesame
Street started. It seems that the show has pre-
dominantly Black people in it. I have taken note
to find that the main people are: Susan, Gordon,
David, Maria, Luiz, Bob, and Mr. Hooper. That
makes (4) Blacks, (1) Puerto Rican, and (2) Whites,
Most of the children are also Black. I would say
that things are a bit out of proportion.
There is too much Spanish in the show. True,
Spanish speaking children watch the show, but you’re
not teaching them to learn English the way you do it.
Now, if you said something in English and then in
86
Spanish, that would teach them. But if you justsay something to them in Spanish, it’s like theirown part of the show. They're just learning moreSpanish. As long as a person intends to live in
America, that person should learn English. Everyother nationality has had to learn English, so whycater to the Spanish or Puerto Ricans. After all
English is the National language.
Don't forget what I first said. I do think
Sesame Street is a good show for small children.
There are just certain things I don't agree with,
and I felt I should let you know. However, I did
state some of the things I like about it too.
—A letter from Rye, N. Y.
These people probably would be shocked if someone was to point out to them
that their comments were racist. Although these letters are negative they do
point out that the program attempts to show that the world is not comprised only
of the White majority society. Unfortunately, some can not see our effort as
positive. When this investigator reads letters of this type she can't help but
wish she could meet their children and see how much damage has already been
done to them by their environment. The importance of a show like ours as this
time in a child's life is doubled for this reason alone, for children at this age are
relatively unblemished by the effects of racism. They say Susan has dark skin
in the way that they would say Susan has on a blue blouse.
What we are fighting on Sesame Street has been brought out to me
vividly on many occasions. At a personal appearance in Baltimore, one mother
stood in line with her daughter for over an hour. When they reached me, the child
started to greet me warmly and positively, "Hi, Susan—
"
87
The mother shunted the child aside and said to me through clenched
teeth, MDo you know how my child counts from one to four?” Her words were
very clearly enunciated. When I responded with a puzzled look, she said, "One.
Two. Three. Foe!" I laughed and said, "Oh, isn’t that cute ! A little ethnic
spill-over. " And she said, "It’s not cute in nry neighborhood !" and dragged
her child away. On the other hand, a letter like this one from a Black mother
who enclosed pictures of her children makes up for the criticism, whether it
comes from a Harvard professor or a White mother:
Hello my name is Barbara age 8
I am sending my picture to your. I amnot to well about what's gonna happen to
Sesame Street. A man name Mr. Tee came to
my house and said they are gonna take Sasameoff of T.V. they can't do that. What will your
thing about the other kids who love it like me.
I have larn every thing from Sesame Street
3 years ago.
I am Elijah and they cant take Big bird &
Cookie Man & Oscars off of t.v. I no all myA. B. C. and all of my 1 + 1=1 am only 6
years if they take Sasame Street off you have
to take off the other's that is trying to lern
chrildre how to read and write befor they
go to school, pleas donf take it off.
Dear Readers
I am sending this here letter for mychrildren. this is what they said to all
Sesame Street T.V. Fan's, to help Sesame
stay on T.V.
88
Barbara 8. years Said we like to look at
Sasame because we can larn how to countgood
Luther 5-1/2 years Said he like to seeOscar the Trash Clearning man who pickup junk
Elijah 6-1/2 Like to see Big bird and the
Cookie man they are funny to every one
Thomas 3 years Larn all his 1, 2, 3, andthe A. B.C. he even no how much is
1+1 = 2 .
Many happy returns of the day to keep
Sesame Street on the way
Love
Barbara
8 years old
Dear Sir:
I have a five year old brother who has been
watching both Electric Company and Sesame Street
since when they both first started. I think the two
programs are great. My brother has learned to
say the whole alphabet in about one month. He has
also learned to recite the numbers from one to
fifty. Last Christmas we bought for him those nine
records from Sesame Street. I am twelve and I really
enjoy them as much as he does.
Electric Company and Sesame Street, I think,
are the best programs a child could watch. They’re
educational, entertaining, and exciting to a young
child.
I've heard of some people who think Electric
Company should not be shown to children because
89
of the mixed races of people in the show. In myopinion, I think that's great. For one thing thekids learn not to be prejudiced against black kidsor even white kids.
My brother wanted to know if you could pleasesend him some autographs of some of the people onSesame Street like Big Bird, Osker the Grouch,Bob, Mr. Copper, Susan, Gordon, etc. Do youthink you could send a picture of the whole gang,
too? Thanks a lot.
Do you think you could send some Electric
Company pictures, too? Thanks again!
I guess I've told you enough, so just keep upthe good work, and maybe try to stay on the air
long enough so kids of my own can someday watchthese two shows, too.
Sincerely yours,
Debbie
We still have some hope as long as kids get the message. The investigator hopes
she can live long enough for them to take over.
Teacher's Attitudes
A very powerful weapon for fighting of educational racism is the develop-
ment of a positive attitude in the teacher toward minority urban children.
Frank Riessman, author of The Culturally Deprived Child puts it
succinctly when he states : "From the classroom to the PTA [Black children]
discover that, the school does not like them, does not respond to them, does
18not appreciate their culture, and does not think they can learn. ” Kenneth
90
Clark feels that stimulation and teaching based on positive expectation play an
even more important role in the child's performance in school than his
environment.
A study of teacher expectations for the disadvantaged conducted by
Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson seems to support Dr. Clark's theory.
The Rosenthal-Jacobson study was conducted in south San Francisco with
Mexican-American children, who the teachers were told were potential academic
spurters and a control group. The two groups were tested at the beginning of
the school year and several times in the next two years. The results were a
average growth of 27 I. Q. points during the first and second grades while the
malleable self-image could be shaped in a positive direction. The teachers
"hung up" by phony labels described the so called "spurter" as having a better
chance at being successful in later life. . . as being happier, more curious and
more interesting. It's interesting to note that the children in the control group
who made intellectual gains when it was not expected of them were looked on as
showing undesirable behavior.
In light of the effect upon tine child's ability to achieve that the teachers
attitude has, the ETS finding that teachers have more positive attitudes toward
heavy Sesame Street viewers than less frequent or nonviewers has taken on a new
importance. In the teacher questionnaire (part of the ETS followup study 1971)
that was used as a way of assessing the child's general readiness for school the
teachers were asked to rank all of the children in their classes, thus keeping the
91
teachers from singling out the children in the ETS followup study. They were
evaluated by the following criteria:19
1. General readiness for school.
2. Verbal readiness.
3. Quantitative readiness.
4. General intelligence.
5. Attitude toward school.
6. Relationships with peers.
7. Motor coorindation.
8. Cooperation (at post test only)
This made it possible to compare the average ranking of frequent viewers with
less frequent and nonviewers.
In all cases, the Q4 (frequent-viewing) children
were ranked higher than the other three quartiles.
The rankings indicate that the children who werethe most frequent viewers of Sesame Street were
deemed relatively highly qualified by their teachers
in the areas of general readiness and quantitative
readiness. . . . The most interesting results,
however, is reflected in the teacher rankings of
the childrens’ attitudes toward school. In this
case, the differences were statistically significant
(p=. 004), and it seems as though the Q4 and Q3
children were considered by their teachers to have
better attitudes toward school than Q1 and Q2
children. Contrary to the predictions of boredom
and restlessness in school for the sophisticated
veterans of Sesame Street teachings, the most
frequent viewers were judged to be among the better
prepared students with respect to attitude toward
school. These same children were ranked significantly
92
higher with respect to peer relations than were theless frequent viewers of the show (p=, 025), anotherindication of the degree to which Sesame Streetviewers made at least adequate adjustments to schoollife.
20
Although the findings are tentative ETS does state,
The Q4 children, who watched most and gainedmost in the first year were still the most highlyregarded by their teachers with respect to readinessfor the attitude toward school, and with respectto peer relationships. The findings raise someintriguing issues about the Sesame Street experienceand the subsequent school experience. If SesameStreet viewers are ’’different" from their peersas they enter school, it is not in the direction of
boredom and passivity.21
If, through the efforts of Sesame Street the child is made to feel more self
confident and happy in a formal school situation, a big step toward fighting
educational racism has been taken.
The Role of Love on Sesame Street
The cast and producers of Sesame Street clearly love and respect
young children. The importance of love was recognized from the very beginning,
when the producers first did research into what things children liked and then
tried to build educational concepts into them. The auditions for the hosts of the
show were put on tape and shown to children, and the hosts were chosen by how
the children responded—the first Gordon was replaced after the pilot shows
when children could not respond to him. Without love, both for the child and
93
for each other, the show could not have worked. Cast members realize the
importance of warmth and love, and know that the kids return their love. Kids
can spot phony warmth or love faster and with more perception than any adult.
The E. T. S. has no test for the effects of the love and warmth shown on Sesame
Street by the cast for each other and for their viewers. Children love an^ trust
me because I'm Susan on the show—I don't have to tell themaloud, that I love them.
Love and care are shown on the show in many ways. When someone has
a problem on the show, all of the cast tries to help solve it. Thus, when Mr.
Hooper's sister was sick, I (Susan) offered to sit with her while Gordon and Bob
ran the store. Once, when Mr. Hooper’s store was on fire, we called the
firemen first, and called him only when the fire was out—~we were concerned
that the excitement would be too much for him if we called earlier. When children
have a problem, we try to fix it, whether it be a broken toy or an accident like
spilling milk.
The effort of the cast to always show love and concern continues in every
show. Again, it is an effort that involves the entire production staff. Around
the end of the first season, when the cast was fairly comfortable with the amount
of care shown to each other, the investigator met a small girl in a shore. When
I finished talking with her, I bent down and kissed her. She r<rew back and looked
at her mother, completely surprised, and said, "Susan kissed me! They never
kiss on Sesame Street. " When the writer reported this to Jon Stone, the producer,
the signs of care—hugging, kissing, touching, holding—were immediately made
much more frequent and overt.
94
Summary
The hidden curriculum in Sesame Street is a curriculum that is made
up of the small, human moments that we, as adult educators, often overlook.
We tend to forget that what is to us sometimes only a convention is to a child
either a sign of care or a sign of dislike, depending upon how we express it.
This chapter has attempted to deal with the process of and response to some of
the non-cognitive things we've tried to do with Sesame Street. It has attempted
to show how creating a general atmosphere of praise, racial tolerance, and
warmth, as viewed by adults, simply was not enough—we had to go to the kids
and find out how they reacted to even the smallest of affective gestures.
Excerpt from: The KTS Follow'-up Study, 1971.
EXAMPLE 6s ATTITUDE TOWARD SCHOOL
HERE'S (child's name) . ARE YOU SAD OR AREYOU HAPPY WHEN YOU ARE SAYING THE ABC'S?
CHAPTER IV
THE COMMUNITY EDUCATION DIVISION
Although C. T. W. is designed primarily as a ’’television enterprise"
that uses experienced television professionals and specific educational goals to
produce as lively, entertaining and educational show as possible, the educational
task of programs such as 'Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company" do not
stop with simply airing the program. Dr, Lutrelle Horne, Director of Foreign
Operations, has described the pre-production and post-production procedures
which add to the production staff's knowledge of what works best to entertain and
educate children .
1 The formative and summative research findings have been
discussed by many others, as described in Chapter III. But one of the many
innovative facets of C. T. W. which has been virtually ignored is its Community
Education Division. It is examined in this chapter as a model for ensuring that
a worthwhile educational program can fully reach those who would benefit most.
Mrs. Cooney mandated this element in her first proposal where she
stated:
96
We recognize that any educational effort involvingchildren tends to have a greater effect if parentscan also be reached and informed. We thereforepropose to investigate various means of reachingparents with information about the children’sprogram (Sesame Street) and with general in-formation on child development. The eventualgoal. . . would be the establishment of sometype of parents’ program. . . on television orvia some other medium.
^
The underlying reason for this decision was the sharp controversy and difference
of opinion that existed regarding whether or not one series could benefit both
disadvantaged and advantaged children. A number of educators interviewed
felt that,
The lack of language development in disadvantaged
children created a qualitative difference between
them and advantaged, middle class children, while
others seemed to think that the differences wereessentially quantitative. . . that some children
were merely at an earlier level of development
than others.
^
Mrs. Cooney decided that neither agreement nor definitive research was
essential in beginning her "experiment in instructional television;" therefore,
one series of shows for all preschoolers was designed. She did agree, however,
that a deliberate effort to reach the families of the urban and rural poor and
minorities would be essential to the success of the project. Before Sesame Street
could teach the viewer, it had to reach the viewer. Certain elements of the
poverty home such as overcrowding, general noise level, and control of the
television set by older children and parents, were factors that had to be thought
97
out and dealt with by the Workshop. An overwhelmingly positive factor on the
side of C. T. W. was the love and concern of these parents for their children
and their desire to see them succeed in life. Poverty parents tend to cite
education as an important means of escaping the poverty cycle; thus they tend to
be very cooperative when they are convinced a program of action will really
benefit their children.
From its very inception, the Community Education Division was aware
that its primary job was to get the message of Sesame Street, and its ability to
help prepare preschoolers for future learning, to the grassroots level of the
community. A special effort would have to be made. First, the public television
channel was not the channel that most families watched. Much of public television
being broadcast on the UHF band traditionally has been beamed to suburban
communities or to the higher income areas rather than toward the inner cities,
thus making the signal weak and reception poor. Many lower income families
either do not have television sets equipped to receive UHF, or the convertors or
special antenna equipment needed to pick up the UHF signal. In fact, often inner-
city families didn't realize that they could get UHF, or that such a channel
existed. Also, prior to Sesame Street, public television channels were not watched
by poor families because the programming on those stations generally had not
been geared to the interests of minorities or low income communities. Through
the Community Education Division it was hoped that special promotional programs
98
could be mounted to attract an audience to public television in those communities.
Mrfl. Evelyn P. Davis, Vice President of CED, states:
We started out with a basic concept: whatevercommunity CED went into we had to know the
life style of that area. Whether it was a low
income area like Appalachia or rural
Mississippi or Chicago, there are somedifferences in terms of what people relate to.
We always tried to identify the uniqueness of
those communities and then gear whatever wewere doing to whatever they might be.^
Therefore, it was imperative that the staff and volunteers be indigenous to the
communities in which they served in order to establish rapport with and have
knowledge of the life style of the specific target audience that they were attempting
to reach. The techniques that were used varied and depended on the specific need
at the time. Before Sesame Street went on the air, most of the methods used
related to printed promotional material and its distribution within the communities.
CED staffers did not use traditional advertising for this promotional effort
because it was felt that the target audience tended to disregard billboards,
ads placed in daily papers, or ads in the more esoteric magazines such as
Saturday Review . Instead, ethnic publications such as Ebony , Jet^and Essence
Magazine , Black and Spanish language newspapers and ethnic radio spots and any
television shows that minority communities were watching were utilized. Posters
and flyers by the millions were distributed to schools, day care centers, churches,
welfare departments, telephone companies and any other such organizations
within the communities. Audio-visual mobile vans saturated inner-city neighbor-
99
hoods showing pilot films to sidewalk audiences, after which materials explaining
the show were distributed. Workshops were held in schools with the schools’
cooperation and audiences of parents and their little infants as well as preschool
children gathered to hear about Sesame Street. School authorities often would
ask how CED coordinators could get such big audiences out when they often had
difficulty getting these same parents to respond to the school’s programs. Mrs.
Davis explained CED’s success:
We operated from another premise. We started
with the premise that all parents are interested
in teaching their children; and that they are
concerned about their children, especially the
non-white or the poor. If you tell them that you
are going to help them help their children, they
will turn out. We were able to prove that. Weheld large city-wide meetings of parents
primarily—and teachers when we could get them
—
in the evenings and on weekends or any time wefelt the people were available. We tried to gear
all of our efforts, person-to-person or group-to-
group, to times that were convenient to the life-
style of the inner city community.^
Once the show was on, a new set of problems developed for the CED,
which was : how to ensure the best utilization of Sesame Street by the target
audiences in the inner cities and other poor communities ? It was certain that
this critical job could not be left to volunteers. Thus it was decided that the
objectives could best be achieved by paid staff within the target communities.
CEP's Activities in Urban Centers
A national operation was established in 14 areas around the country:
New York, Baltimore, Boston, Washington, D.C., Jackson, Mississippi, New
Orleans, Atlanta, Dallas -Houston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Appalachia (five state
region), Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland. Although most of the areas were
metropolitan, two of the areas were predominantly rural. The staff people
recruited were indigenous to the areas and were people whose background had
generally been in community development, such as teachers and former Peace
Corps volunteers. They were all people who knew their communities, its
institutions, and how to move around them. After coordinators were hired and
offices set up in these areas, CED was placed in a position to touch to some
degree the majority of low income families in the country, most of whom were
located in large urban areas.
Each of the Field Service Coordinators worked very independently,
although they adhered to certain general philosophies in terms of building
audiences. They were encouraged to use various kinds of techniques in order
that as many variables could be found as possible. When asked what she feels
the function of the community coordinator should be Ms. Davis replied that,
The job of Community Coordinator should be
that of working as a catalyst in his community.
He or she must institute innovative experiments,
train the community people to take over and run
these programs, and then step out and give
minimal support whenever needed, once the
program is functioning. S
101
Once the network of coordinators was established and functioning, the next and
most important step was to reach the parent or the parent substitute, whether
it was the day care teacher, grandmother, or neighbor. The basic premise was
to help parents understand that they are the child's first teachers, and the
home, their first school. * Preschool children are not independent individuals,
SO it was felt by CED that the parent was the most important person to reach.
We were after parents, it didn't matter whatlevel of education they had, or even how busythey were, because we were not asking themto sit down and teach their children a wholeschool at home; we wanted to help them under-stand what they could do as they went abouttheir daily routines, as they dealt with theirchild under normal circumstances. 7
CED coordinators' efforts were all geared toward helping parents understand
what they could do. The parents were interested in the promise before Sesame
Street went on the air, and once it was on the air they knew that it provided a
means by which they could make the promise a reality.
Once the parents were interested in the show the problem then began to
shift, for the parents wanted and needed more help than CED or its local
coordinators had been initially prepared to give. One of the aspects of parental
teaching that was promoted very heavily by the coordinators was a program by
which children who were not in a formal preschool program (which encompassed
*This concept first came to my attention through Nat Rutstein’s
unpublished proposal, "Mother, The First Educator. "
102
the majority of children in low income areas) could be brought together for a
few hours each day to view the show and participate in supervised viewing and
reinforcement activities. These viewing centers were set up in either a home,
or in a neighborhood facility such as a church, a library, a school, or community
center. They were staffed by volunteer parents or other interested adults who
would supervise the children while they watched the show and who would then
involve the children in reinforcement activities. These activities were prepared and
distributed by CED and geared to each day's programming, and to the curriculum
items covered in the show. A synopsis of each script and games developed for
reinforcement were included in a "program package. " Currently CED distributes
thousands of these packets a week for duplication and use by viewing centers. In
some states the state department of education duplicates enough program packages
to supply all the early childhood centers in the state. The concept of the grass
root viewing center in which a child could interact with other preschoolers and
interested adults and be involved in reinforcement activities following the program
has proven very successful. In many cases, it serves as the only preschool
experience available to many children because of the scarcity of programs such
as Head Start.
103
CEP's Activities in Appalachia
While the viewing center concept seemed to work well in urban centers,
Paul Elkins, the CED coordinator in Appalachia, found that it was not a viable
solution for his region because of the uniqueness of the culture of the Appalachian
poor. The policy of using only indigenous coordinators was the basis for success
in this particular region. Mr. Elkins, who was educated outside of the region,
found that this strongly family-oriented culture was too suspicious of outsiders
to go to neighbors’ homes for meetings or to allow their children to do so. Mr.
Elkins had to develop ways of working with the families so that they would not
have to leave their own area or mix with outsiders. Since he could not get the
people together because of the natural suspicions, his initial presentations were
made from home to home. This was quite a task because he covers a five
state area. After raising parental interest in the program, Paul then got tape
recorders and cassettes and recorded information about the show and specific
reinforcement activities that could be done by the parents and children at home.
He also answered questions that came from his visitations. He then gave the
program tape, a blank tape and a cassette player to the parents, and left it with
them, encouraging the parents to use the blank tape to record their own questions
and to allow the children to talk into it as well. In two weeks Paul exchanged the
program and question tape for a new program tape. After using this procedure for
a period of time, the parents finally agreed to meet with other Sesame Street
104
parents every two weeks for workshop demonstrations, thus releasing the
cassettes for use elsewhere. After two years, this program was so successful
that mothers cooperatives developed. Each mother in the community was then
willing to take all the children on a rotating basis. The meetings every two
weeks are still in existence and have developed the social flavor of the old
country quilting bee.
Through Paul’s encouragement, Sesame Street graduates now old
enough for The Electric Company—aged seven to eleven—have organized mini-
schools where they teach the preschoolers in the same way that the mothers
would. This process is benefitting both groups of children, for the older children
are more interested in perfecting their reading skills in order to help the
younger ones.
Delonwisco Education Project
One principle of CED is that of utilizing fully established facilities and
organizations.
We know that with a few people in the country you
can't cover this country. So we don't expect the
coordinators to do these things themselves. Their
function is to serve as a catalyst, so that they can
involve institutions, organizations, groups of
people, whomever, and get those people doing the
conducting of these various programs as it fits
into their objectives, and it will also serve ours.
We aid and abet them where we can. One example
of full utilization of an on-going program is what
Mr. Elkins is accomplishing with the Delonwisco
Education Project, which. . . is part of the
105
Appalachian Education Commission which is
funded through the Office of Education .
3
Delonwisco has audio-visual vans that travel around in the mountains to try to
help parents help their children. Because the Delonwisco project had just begun.
Sesame Street was readily accepted as a teaching tool. These vans are staffed
with teachers and teacher aides and are equipped with videotape equipment to
show Sesame Street. The children come together in groups and watch the show
and then the staff talks individually and privately with the parents at home. It is,
in a sense, a home visitor program. Since they use Sesame Street as the basis
of their effort, all of their resources go into reinforcing the skills learned on
Sesame Street. In this way CED can reach hundreds of thousands more children
than the limited number of coordinators spread over this country could ever
dream of reaching.
Jackson, Mississippi Project
The Jackson, Mississippi project is an example of a middle class group
using their resources to help another less sophisticated group of people. In this
project the concerns of CED coordinator Oily Shirley, is primarily with rural
Mississippi. The education television station in Mississippi is funded by the
state legislature, and is engaged in a program to blanket the state with seven
newly erected transmitters. The state's station director is committed to the
future of public television and its many possibilities and therefore has been very
106
helpful in extending the impact of Sesame Street from its inception; even though,
ironically Mississippi took Sesame Street off the air the first season only to be
pressured into putting it back on by a grassroot movement by protesting mothers.
As each transmitter went up and a new portion of the state was exposed
to Sesame Street, the station was very interested in helping the CED coordinators
to bring their workshops to the new localities. Through the efforts of the station
director, and station supporters such as "Mississippians for Education Television,
"
an air-conditioned van outfitted to play a week of programs was provided to service
the rural communities who could not get the show otherwise. The van was
staffed by an ex-army career officer whose typical day was spent in this way:
1. Drive to the location after suitable advance
notice.
2. Give two or three showings of the tape to the
children.
3. Conduct an afternoon workshop for teachers
on reinforcement activities.
4. Conduct an evening workshop for parents.
This program utilizing the Sesame Street van will be expanded from the Delta
region of Mississippi into rural Alabama and Georgia next year.
107
San Antonio Project
The project of CED in San Antonio took on still another emphasis, for
in this locality the model project is an integral part of an experimental bilingual,
bicultural project of the San Antonio Edgewood school district. Every newly
developed bilingual and bicultural method of instructional material was used
there by a corps of specially trained teachers.
Our interest was to try and find out whether the
addition of Sesame Street into this model project
throughout the district would have any addedimpact on the children. We were also interested
in seeing how the Spanish segments of the showworked out. That project was conducted for
a year and a half, which was the life of the
project as intended. It went very well, and nowthat we have entered our direct involvement
throughout the city of San Antonio. We feel good
about that particular project. It will be written
up in the total evaluation of the Edgewood school
district bicultural program. 9
New York Project
Following the successful use of existing agencies in other communities
the New York CED staffers decided to tap the neighborhood youth corps program
as a potential source for "Sesame Street Teachers" to staff viewing centers. It
was recognized that teenagers often want to work in their own communities, are
usually looking for meaningful summer jobs, and have not solidified their career
plans; thus they have an interest in finding out firsthand about the field of education.
A bonus for CED was the fact that the neighborhood youth corps workers were
108
on the payroll of the Department of Labor, which often has a difficult time
finding more than "make work" summer placements for its enrollees. The first
experiment in New York City involved only a small group of teenagers who, after
receiving training from CED staff trainers as "Sesame Street Teachers" worked
in New York City day care centers. This training consisted of a week-long
workshop in which the curriculum goals and the techniques of guided viewing and
spontaneous reinforcement were explained in detail. Other areas of training
included the techniques of pre-planned reinforcement through the use of the
program package supplied by CED, of supervising children outside of the day care
center, and of simply talking with and listening to the children. In conjunction with
the CED staff, the teenagers planned and supervised educational field trips.
Finally, members of the case of Sesame Street met with and encouraged the
novice teachers. The teenagers' involvement with the preschool children was one
which benefited both age groups immeasurably. Young children looked up to and
learned from older brothers and sisters; the teenagers, most of whom were
dropouts, gained tremendously in self respect. The teenagers' horizons were
definitely expanded by the experience, and they vowed that they wanted to become
teachers. Thus, a purely custodial operation was upgraded into an educational
experience, with very little cost to C.T. W.
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Based on the New York City program a national teenage program was
instituted in 1971 involving approximately one thousand neighborhood youth corps
workers and about ten thousand preschoolers, Black, White, and Chicano from
low income homes. The pilot project was so overwhelmingly successful that
the following year the program mushroomed to involve ten thousand teenagers
over one hundred thousand children in some thirty-four different locations in
this country and Guam. As a result, many parts of the country have instituted
a year round program involving teenagers in preschool education.
CEP's Other Activities
CED is attempting to initiate a program whereby high school credit can
be given for students involved in this type of teaching situation. Many suburban
schools already give credit for community service projects; extending this
concept to urban schools presents children from low income families the same
opportunity to earn school credit. In some cases, college students, especially
education students, benefit from a teaching experience plus credit. This arrange-
ment has been worked out by CED in many colleges and universities. College
students have been very successful in their community work involving day care
centers, viewing centers and training parents to use Sesame Street at home.
This summer an intersession institute was conducted by Tresha Hayes and
Vivian Riley at City College of New York for graduate students and teachers to
upgrade their skills in the use of instructional television in the classroom. It
110
was so successful that this three credit course will become an ongoing part of
the college curriculum.
In Los Angeles, the school district, along with the CED coordinator,
established a two week summer workshop for teachers and specially recruited
parent-leaders. The parents were paid a stipend and given future employment
as paraprofessionals the following semester by the board of education, and the
teachers received incremental credit for their participation in the CED program.
To date some 2, 200 teachers and parents have received training as a result of
this program.
Summary
Sesame Street is a rally point around which public service groups can
spin off all types of beneficial programs. For example, in Philadelphia there is
a group of Vietnam veterans called V.I. P.S. (Vets in Public Service) who are in
training to become teachers and are now manning viewing centers; CED has an
affiliation with a dental college whereby the viewing centers and parental groups
are used by the dental students to get information about preventative dentistry out
to the parents. Another such program is the University For Action in Chicago,
which involves college students in community service projects allied to their
major for college credit. Some of these students work in CED projects such as
viewing centers or day care centers as volunteer "Sesame Street teachers" upward
to thirty hours a week.
Ill
Another spin-off project in which the CED was active through their
coordinators in Los Angeles area was the "Sesame Street Mothers Project"
conducted by the Institute for Educational Development in El Sequendo, California.
This project trained forty-three mothers in the Los Angeles area and twenty-
eight in Chicago. After receiving training in the use of Sesame Street each
mother was assigned a viewing group ranging from two to twelve children, thus
involving some 300-325 youngsters over a period of five weeks.
The need for mothers' workshops on a national basis is apparent
through the demands placed on CED's limited staff of trainers, a demand
which, because of recent cuts in funding, simply cannot be met. Just as Sesame
Street partially met the needs of preschoolers without spending 2.75 billion
dollars for additional teachers, this investigator believes that a similar approach
must be tried to meet the needs of the preschoolers' mothers. This approach
is presented in Chapter V.
CHAPTER V
SESAME STREET MOTHERS' SHOW
The premise is to take the mystique out of
being able to teach your child.
—Evelyn P. Davis, in an interview
Introduction
If we are going to educate children sooner and better in an atmosphere
of love and racial tolerance as well as cooperation instead of competition, and
then, through programs like those run by CED, make sure that this education
reaches those children who need it most, we must also look at how the message
of Sesame Street can be best reinforced in the children's minds. This chapter
will present an outline of the elements of a show designed to raise the mothers'
capabilities in the teaching of their children through Sesame Street. It is not
meant to be a show that stands alone: its sole purpose is to supplement the
cognitive and affective teaching brought about through Sesame Street by training
mothers, particularly those of the inner city, how to encourage and reinforce
their children’s learning.
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Elements of the Show
First of all, the structure and contents of a show for mothers could
well benefit from the preproduction experience of Sesame Street, where an
eighteen month prebroadcast period was used for formative research into what
appealed to children and how they could best be attracted, held, and taught.
For this show, formative research would strive to identify a priority of need
for the type of training which it would present. This ongoing research would
look at what the mothers wanted to know and, just as Sesame Street, use the
mothers’ input to further define what is aired. The Sesame Street model of the
marriage of research and production would be utilized.
Obviously, this type of formative research would identify many program
elements. The following elements should be taken as suggestions which this
writer feels, through her experience as a cast member on Sesame Street and
her associations with various training projects run by the Community Education
Division, will work. They should be taken as starting points for further extensive
research.
Length
The show should be between fifteen and thirty minutes long. It is the
investigators preference for the longer show: however, a number of factors
would have to be considered before production began. First, in terms of budget,
this writer feels a high quality fifteen minutes show would be far more effective
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than a low-budget half hour show. It is crucial that this show compete in quality
and appeal with other programming, as Sesame Street does, thus guaranteeing
the largest possible audience on a large scale, and the fullest attention on a
small scale. Research would have to determine how long an active mother
would sit still for this type of high-quality, high-appeal show: it makes no sense
to produce a thirty minute show when most mothers may have time for only
fifteen minutes.
Time of Broadcast
This program should be aired before the morning showing of Sesame
Street, so that the mother could be prepared for that day’s Sesame show, and
arrange the materials for reinforcement activities. Because the show includes
specific suggestions for that day’s Sesame show, an early broadcast would
allow mothers to prepare for guided viewing. Certainly, a second showing
during prime time, or a continuous showing of all five of the week's segments
on Saturday in conjunction with a continuous showing of Sesame Street, could
be arranged to accommodate the working mother.
General Structure
The format should be as fast-moving and varied as possible to prevent
it from becoming too ’’talky” or didactic. It could be styled, after the daytime
talk shows, such as ’’Dinah’s Place," or "Living Easy," with Dr. Joyce
Brothers, although this writer feels a continuing effort has to be made to keep the
show moving, and such formats tend to be very stationary. A regular hostess provides
115
the continuity needed for the long-range goals of the show. Because of the
identification factor that this writer has built up over the years as Susan on
Sesame Street, this hostess could very well be me. Mothers would be able to
see me out of character and see that the writer is just as concerned about the
education of their children as Susan is. The investigator’s priority would be to
stress, especially to inner city mothers, that educating their children involves
no all-excluding mystique, and that they don't have to have a degree to teach the
ABC’s. Instead, they can do simple things—things that the writer, as Susan
does, for example, to guarantee an atmosphere of love and an opportunity to
find learnings as something that is exciting, enjoyable, and most of all
encouraged by their first teachers. The investigator could point out some of the
simple things she does, like squatting a lot to get down to the child's level, or
holding the smallest child in a group in her arms when we play or sing on
Sesame Street. These are easily overlooked things that mean so much to small
children.
Setting
The most logical and natural setting for this show is part of the Sesame
Street set—the Stoop. Beyond the fact that this setting would tend to eliminate
much of the distance and coldness associated with studio talk show set-ups, it
would, again, present mothers with a "behind-the-scene" view of Sesame Street,
thus making the viewer feel closer to us. Hopefully, this setting would encouiage
a feeling of cooperation between the program and the home in reinforcing the
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simple cognitive and affective skills taught on the program. The set alone could
b© used to explain to mothers the importance of its familiarity to their children.
It would visually help to promote a sense of unity between the Mothers’ Show and
Sesame Street. If a bit from Sesame Street were aired to point out certain
principles of guided viewing and reinforcement activities, having the bit analyzed
on the very same set would certainly eliminate the ’’academic" or mysterious
feeling inner city mothers might have when confronted with a standard studio set
removed from the trashcans and crowded brownstones.
In short, if the target audience is the inner city mother, then the
informality encouraged by the set could be used to great advantage. It would
certainly be easier to explain to these mothers what Sesame Street is trying to do.
Experts
One must read carefully here, for the use of experts on cameras—in
this case early childhood specialists—sometimes promotes the mystique of
teaching rather than dispels it. The general atmosphere of Sesame Street, care
and love and equal participation of all involved, can be applied here. Certain facts
must be communicated to mothers about education. For example, they must
realize that a child learns fastest and most easily during the first four or five
years of life, and that the greatest amount of learning from television is done
during the child’s early use of it. They must realize that some type of preschool
experience at home is especially important for children not enrolled in a formal
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program like Head Start or day care. Sesame Street research found that children
who watch the most, learn the most: these type of findings should help mothers
use Sesame Street. They must be presented in simple terms —perhaps be
illustrated by the hostess—but never in a condescending way. Educators, and
this includes the Sesame Street staff, often fall into jargon. We say that a bit
on the letter "C" promotes symbolic representation, when all we mean is that
it helps a child know his ABC's. An effective show for mothers must find a way,
and the use of experts is only an immediately conceptualized one, to get these
important facts across.
Panel of Mothers
By a panel of mothers I do not mean three or four mothers sitting
stiffly at a straight table arguing each other to death. While the results of such
an argument, as in a program like "The David Susskind Show” can be sophisticated
and thought-provoking for an audience of suburban intellectuals, both the time
constraints of the show and the nature of the intended audience preclude such a
free-form panel discussion. Why not use mothers in much the same way as
children are used on Sesame Street? While this show makes no pretense at
being a grown-ups' Sesame Street, the effect on mothers would be much the same
as on children who see their counterparts. The modeling effect is the same:
if viewers see other women who are not actresses, teachers or professionals
discussing how they have solved their problems, they will be encouraged to try
the same things and develop their own methods.
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The writer points out that the setting has quite a potential here in terms
of informality: four mothers couldn’t sit in a row on the stoop on Sesame
Street. Methods for involving the viewing mother in the show include: encouraging
the viewers to send in suggestions for toys made from cheap household items for
followup activites, or suggestions on how working mothers could arrange for
followup activities, or suggestions on how everyday routines, such as getting a
child dressed, can be turned into an educational experience. These suggestions
could be incorporated into a type of contest with the "winners" appearing on the
show. Letters from children and parents to CTW such as those cited in Chapter
III could be read on the air and discussed by the mothers.
Short Dramatizations
Short skits could be prepared showing several alternative reactions to
everyday occurrances. These could be used to point out which alternatives
encourage learning in the child. For example, one skit could present a busy
mother shopping in a grocery store with her three-year-old child. She turns
and sees the child jumping up and down trying to pull cherries off the fruit
counter. The mother’s first reaction is to abruptly scold the child and drag him
away while he is crying his head off. This first reaction could be dramatized
and followed by a dramatization of an alternative: The mother asks, "Do you
want to see what’s on the counter?" After lifting the child up, she could say,
"See, these are cherries, but we're not buying any today. " After putting the
119
child down, she explains, "Now, you stay close to Mommy. I don’t want to
lose you. "
Interviews and Documentary Clips
The most immediate subjects for interviews are those most closely
associated with Sesame Street. Luis or Maria, Sesame Street's Spanish-speaking
cast members, could talk about the bilingual element of the show. Writers,
researchers, producers, directors and technical people could be interviewed
while doing their job, thus showing the care that is taken in putting Sesame
Street together and the real concerns of the entire CTW staff. Documentary
clips could be shown, illustrating Sesame Street's research methods on, for
example, day care centers, or CED's attempts to reach parents in Appalachia.
The idea of "inhouse" interviews and documentary clips is simply to familiarize
the parents with Sesame Street, thus removing the mystique surrounding the
show.
Interviews and documentaries with "outside" subjects must be carefully
chosen to illustrate specific points central to the program. Thus, a simple
documentary—how to get to and get around a museum, for example—could be
used to encourage mothers to broaden their children's experience.
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Segments Dealing with the Day's Show
These segments would be produced as examples to stimulate the viewing
mother's thinking about what can be done to reinforce the learning from the day's
show. An actual segment from the show could be aired, and then the hostess
could show how to make educational toys or games pertaining to the segment,
and show how to go about reinforcing the learning from the show segment. In
a way, this would be a TV demonstration of what is contained in CED's present
"program package. ’’ By using the network of community coordinators that
already exists, program packages could be made available in the community,
thus guaranteeing that a substantial portion of mothers would have the package.
This segment could then be used to illustrate its use. Few staffers from CED
were assigned to the Mothers’ Show, viewers could also be encouraged over the
air to write in and place their names on a mailing list. The concept here is to
explain what Sesame Street is trying to do on a bit-by-bit level: for example, the
repetition of the bits, often irksome to adults, can be shown to be attractive to
children in terms of their anticipation and participation.
The Community Education Division is vital to the success of the proposed
show. Just as Sesame Street could not be satisfied merely with airing a program,
this show must incorporate similar activities to reach its target audience.
Response to the show must be encouraged if mothers are to feel actively involved
in the learning process. But response must be a two-way street. Mothers
questions must be answered by experts either by mail or by reading the best
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questions over the air. Certainly, the show has as much to learn from the
viewing mothers as it has to teach them. By actively and fully using the
Community Education Division, this meaningful two-way communication could
be ensured.
Other Features
To break up any emerging "talkiness, " songs from Sesame Street could
be performed on a more or less regular basis. It must be remembered that
much of the affective learning on Sesame Street is tied to songs. Thus, the
songs provide not only a pleasant interlude, they could also serve as springboards
for analysis and discussion. The conscious effort of songs such as ’’Black hands,
yellow hands, white hands, brown” to promote racial tolerance could be easily
pointed out. Characters on Sesame Street could be interviewed to discuss how
they see their roles. Animation could be used, after suitable research into the
extent of its fascination for adults (there’s simply no doubt about its fascination
for children), to teach the things that adults have to learn.
Funding
If funded to an appropriate level, there is little doubt that this show
should be national. One could argue that the appropriate level—say three
million dollars a year—is simply not justified by the size of the intended audience.
But Sesame Street has pretty much proved that a well-thought-out and well-
produced show will appeal to almost everybody. But this is really beside the
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central issue. No one really knows the size of the intended audience for such a
show. But suppose one adds three million to the eight million already spent
by CTW each year and decides that eleven million is simply too much to pay. A
show like this could be done on a local level by local ETV stations. It could
even be produced by college students as a project in television production. A
fifteen minute segment like this was used successfully by CED's San Francisco
coordinator.
It is important to realize that this show will not replace CED's efforts
at training mothers and others in workshops and viewing centers any more than
Sesame Street will replace schools. It will instead supplement these efforts,
giving mothers the same chance to more fully develop their own potential as
their children have with Sesame Street.
Summary
One thing is clear about education in this country: we are not educating
our children soon enough or with the most modern technology. We are also not
educating all children equally. Those minority and inner city children who need
the most attention and resources because of their different cultural environment
often receive the least. Taken together, these facts represent an incalculable
waste of human potential. The preschoolers of today are going to live in a
world of accelerating change and explosive technological growth. The prospect
of this 21st Century world terrifies us: it cannot terrify these children.
123
Traditional educational methods will not prepare these children adequately
for lives as productive citizens, for these methods are too rooted in the past, too
rooted in arbitrary norms set by a White majority society. Black and minority
children of low socio-economic standing too often enter school far behind their
White counterparts. Because they are culturally Hifferent, the survival skills
that they have acquired are ignored, or misunderstood, or actively discouraged
as negative skills. Because the cognitive skills recognized by the educational
establishment as signs of intelligence are often not fully developed in these
children, and because the school environment is often incomprehensible in terms
of their background, these children fall further and further behind their more
advantaged and ’'socially-adjusted” counterparts. Instead of promoting a truly
democratic and open way of living, the educational establishment perpetuates a
cycle of failure and despair for Black and minority children, thus widening the
very gap—equal opportunity for all—that it is charged with eliminating.
That we can educate children earlier is without doubt. Learning begins
at birth through the natural processes of life, not at the age of six through the
artificial process of school. American educators have misinterpreted such
theories as Piaget's plateaus of learning to mean that a child of three or four
is not mature enough to learn the simple cognitive skills taught in the first grade.
Yet children of that age learn foreign languages with an ease that astounds older
language students. There is a tendency to think that educators should leave
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children alone to play—that education forces children to ’’grow up” and thus
shortens an individual’s childhood, however nebulously defined the term ’’child-
hood” is. The central issue here is that children make no distinction between
play and work (or education). They simply learn.
What they learn is of critical importance to educators. Most of a
person's intellectual growth takes place before the age of eight. Due to the
inadequacies of inner city environments, the Black and minority child has less
of a storehouse of those skills vital to his success in school and to his own self-
respect than the majority child with whom he or she must compete. Because a
child's learning is not separable from his environment, educators must attempt
to intervene in and enrich that environment.
One modern technology—television—has done just that through the
programs "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company. ” The amount of television
exposure that a six-year-old child brings with him on that first day of school is
staggering; what that child has learned from it depends entirely on what has been
programmed. Children learn things from Saturday morning cartoons and
commercials just as they learn from ’Sesame Street. " Some of these things, as
shown by the BEST study, promote racism; others promote violence.
"Sesame Street” has been effective in teaching a broad socio-economic
spectrum of children the simple cognitive skills that they will need in school. An
examination of the Educational Testing Services first study showed a great
125
differential between the most frequent viewers and the least frequent viewers.
Such an increase in cognitive skills is a worthwhile goal in light of the vast
resources required to establish a nationwide system of preschool education.
But this increase is not the only goal of "Sesame Street": a hidden curriculum
in the program attempts to teach those affective skills which children will need
to an increasing extent as society becomes more complex. The program tries to
ensure that a Black child's self-respect is bolstered so that he can face the de-
mands and ideals. It tries to portray a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural world, in
which individual differences are accepted and admired rather than feared and
disdained. Most simply, it tries to radiate warmth and love for one another.
The program uses simple devices to achieve this goal. It is set in an inner city
neighborhood with trashcans and old brownstones. It uses an integrated cast,
with Black and minority people having as complete and fulfilling roles as Whites.
Innumerable smaller devices such as holding small children and letting children
have equal roles are employed, many of them just natural actions that proceed
from a general atmosphere, others as a result of a child's reaction, and still
others preplanned for a specific goal.
But just airing an educational program with such a hidden curriculum
is not enough to combat the all-encompassing set of environmental problems
that face a Black or minority child. The Children's Television Workshop therefore
has a Community Education Division whose purpose is to get the show to the
126
children who need it most. The activities of this Division in fourteen centers
across the country range from mobile audio-visual vans which tour inner city
neighborhoods to acquaint children and parents with the show, to running work-
shops for mothers to train them how to reinforce the learning that takes place on
the show. Program packages with reinforcement activities are distributed on a
wide scale, sometimes with the help of state departments of education. Teenagers
in New York City have been trained in guided viewing and other reinforcement
principles. The activities of this Division are expanding, but as they rely
primarily on indigenous community organizations, a broader approach to the
problem of getting the show to the children who need it most and of ensuring
that the show is fully utilized is required.
A "Sesame Street Mothers' Show" broadcast on a national basis just
before "Sesame Street" is a feasible approach. Obviously, thorough research
would be required to determine the content and format of such a show. Certain
proposals have been made in this dissertation as to program features: interviews
and documentary clips of carefully chosen subjects, a panel of mothers, clips
from "Sesame Street, ” a regular hostess, an informal setting on the "Sesame
Street" set and the use of early childhood specialists have been discussed. The
goal of the program is to take the mystique out of teaching a child. It would
require substantial funding and substantial innovations in the use of television.
Both are possible if a commitment is made to equalize not just educational
opportunity, but all of the opportunities that based on forward-looking and clear-
thinking education.
127
We are educating children for the space age. With programs like
"Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company" and "Misteroger’s Neighborhood"
we are perhaps at the same stage that the space program was in 1961, when
President Kennedy set a goal of putting men on the moon by 1970. That goal
required a fail-safe rocket of seven and a half million pounds of thrust. In 1961,
the largest fail-safe rocket produced twenty thousand pounds of thrust. We
marvel at men on the moon, yet it was through a simple commitment backed by
adequate resources that they got there. Such an achievement is possible in
education.
SOMEDAY, LITTLE CHILDREN
Someday, little children, somday soonThere's gonna be a lot of people, yeah
—
And they'll be living on the moon.Yeah, people living on the moon someday.Are you wondering who?Well, I'll tell you little children
—
It just might be you,
Someday little children,
Living on the moon someday, little children.
Yeah, it might be you, little children,
Come someday.
Someday, little children
And I hope it won't be long.
Well, people ain't gonna get sick no more,
Be always healthy, always strong.
Yeah, people ain't gonna get sick no more
—
It sounds amazing but it's true.
You know who's gonna see it happen?
Well, it might be you,
Someday little children,
Won't get sick at all, someday, little children.
Yeah, it might be you, little children
—
Come someday.
And someday, little children,
On a day I'm dreaming of
—
There's gonna be a world of people, yeah,
There gonna live in peace and love.
Yeah, a world of peace and love, someday
—
Gonna last a hundred lifetimes through.
You know who's gonna live those lifetimes ?
Well, it's gonna by you
—
Someday, little children.
Live in peace and love, someday, little children,
Gonna be you, little children
—
Come someday.
Come someday.Come on someday.
FOOTNOTES
130
CHAPTER I—FOOTNOTES
Stokley Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Black Power: The Politicsof Liberation in America
. (New York: Vintage Books, 1967), as quoted byLouis L. Knowles, and Kenneth Prewitt (eds.). Institutional Racism in America .
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc,, 1969), p. 1.
oCharles Silberman. Crisis in the Classroom: The Remaking of
American Education. (New York: Random House, 1970), p. 53.
^Eleanor Leacock, Teaching and Learning in City Schools ; A ComparativeStudy ,
(New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1969), p. 6.
^Julius Hobson, The Damned Children ,(Washington Institute for Quality
Education, 1970), p. 23.
^Benjamin Bloom. Stability and Change in Human Characteristics.
(New York: John Wiley & Son, Inc., 1964), p. 68.
6 Ibid., p. 68.
^Benjamin Bloom, Allison Davis and Robert Hess. Compensatory
Education for Cultural Deprivation .(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1965), p. 46.
8Edward F. Carpenter. A Taped interview, May, 1973.
9 Louis L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt (eds.). Institutional Racism in
America. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice Hall, Inc,, 1969), p. 33.
lOjames A. Goodman. ’Institutional Racism: The Crucible of Black
Identity, " James A. Banks and Jean D. Grambs (eds.). Black Self-Concept .
(New York: McGraw Hill Book Co. , 1972), pp. 118-119.
l*-Bloom, et al. ,op. cit.
,
p. 20.
'L2J. McVicker Hunt, Sesame Street .
(New York: Children's Television
Workshop, 1969).
131
CHAPTER II — FOOTNOTES
^National School Public Relations Association, 1966, "The First BigStep" (Washington, D. C.: The Association), p. 5: As quoted in "The Develop-mental Theory of Jean Piaget" by Carole Honstead in Early Childhood EducationRediscovered , Joe Frost (ed. ). (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta,
Dallas, Montreal, Toronto, London: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1968),
p. 132.
3Ira Gordon, Institute of Development of Human Resources, University
of Florida, as quoted from speech, "The Young Child: A New Look. " Speech
delivered at the conference on the Young Child: Florida’s Future, at the
University of Florida, June 16, 1967, as it appeared in the book Early Childhood
Education Rediscovered . Joe Frost, (ed.), 1968, p. 14.
3Thomas Rowland, Carson McGuire, "Development of Intelligent
Behavior I: Jean Piaget, " in Early Childhood Education Rediscovered, Joe Frost
(ed. ), 1968, p. 147.
4J. McVicker Hunt, D. Greenberg, Ina Uzgiris, "Hastening the
Development of the Blink-Response with Looking." Journal of Genetic Psychology,
113, 1968, pp. 167-176, as quoted by J. McVicker Hunt in Parent and Child
Centers: Their Basis in the Behavior and Role of Early Education, unpublished
manuscript, 1970, p. 5.
3W. Keesan, as quoted by Ira Gordon, Institute of Development of
Human Resources, University of Florida. Speech, "The Young Child, A New
Look, " as it appeared in Early Childhood Education Rediscovered, Joe Frost (ed. ),
1968, p. 13.
6 Glenn Doman, How to Teach Your Baby to Read: The Gentle Revolution .
(New York: Random House, 1963), p. 16.
7 Ibid . , p. 18.
3 Ibid. , p. 19.
9 Ibid . , p. 45.
10Benjamin Bloom, Stability and Change in Human Characteristic s,
(New York: John Wiley & Son, Inc., 1964), p. 68.
132
James Hymes, Jr. Teaching the Child Under Six . (Columbus, Ohio-Charles E. Merrill, 1968), p. 3.
12Ibid.
, p. 4.
l3J. McVicker Hunt, Challenge of Incompetence and Poverty. (Urbana,
III. : University of Illinois Press, 1969), p. vii, 1.
14Chester Pierce, M. D. "The Preschooler and the Future. " TheFuturist , February, 1972, pp. 13-15.
l5Ibid.
16 Alvin Toffler. Future Shock. (New York: Bantam Books, 1970), p. 51.
17Nat Rutstein. Dealing With the Television Child: An Educational
Crisis. School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1970.
^Joan Ganz Cooney. "Television for Preschool Children—A Proposal. "
February 1958, p. 5. (Mimeographed)
19Ibid. , p. 6.
20Wilbur Schramm, Jack Lyle, and Edwin B. Parker. Television in the
Lives of our Children. (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1961),
pp. 24-25.
2 1Ibid. , p. 12.
.
22Jack Lyle and Heidi Hoffman. "Explorations in Patterns of Television
Viewing by Preschool-Aged Children. " (University of California at Los Angeles).
Television and Social Behavior, (Washington, D. C. : Government Printing Office,
1972), Vol. 4, p. 268.
2 3Ibid. , p. 262.
2^Schramm, et al.,
op. cit., p. 12.
25Carol Homstead. "The Developmental Theory of Jean Piaget. " In
Joe Frost (ed.). Early Childhood Education Rediscovered .(New York: Holt,
and Winston, 1968), p. 142.
133
2fiJ - McVicker Hunt, Challenge of Incompetence and Poverty . (Urbana
111: University of Illinois Press, 1969), p„ 6.
27Louis L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt (Eds.). Institutional Racism in
America. (Englewood Cliifs, N.J. : Prentice Hall, Inc., 1969), p. 33.
28Joe Frost (ed.). Early Childhood Education Rediscovered. (NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), p. vii.
29 Fred Hechninger. Preschool Education Today. (New York- Doubleday
1966)
, p. 4.
3QIbid. , p. 5.
31U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Equality of
Educational Opportunity (Coleman Report), 1966, p. 20.
32The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders(Kerner Report). (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), p. 425.
33James Comer. "White Racism: Its Root, Form and Function.
"
American Journal of Psychiatry , 126:6, December, 1969, p. 802.
34Kenneth Clark. Prejudice and Your Child . (Boston: Beacon Press,
1955), p. 6.
33Kenneth Clark. Racism in American Education: A Dialogue and
Agenda for Action, (New York: Harper and Row, 1970), p. 9.
36Ibid. , p. 10.
^Kenneth B. Clark. Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power.
(New
York: Harper and Row, 1965). p. 13.
38Benjamin Bloom. Stability and Change in Human Characteristics .
(New York: Wiley & Sons, 1964), p. 68.
39Martin Deutsch. The Disadvantaged Child. (New York: Basic Books,
1967)
, p. 25.
40Ibid.
134
41J. McVicker Hunt. Challenge of Incompetence and Poverty. (Urbana,
III. : University of Illinois Press, 1969), p. 9.
42Ibid.
, p. 9.
43J. McVicker Hunt. Sesame Street. (New York; Children's Television
Workshop, 1969), p. 4.
44Ibid.
45 Louis L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt (eds.). Institutional Racism in
America. (Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice Hall, Inc., 1969), p. 33.
46Universal Opportunities in Early Childhood Education. (Washington,
D. C.: Educational Policy Commission of the National Education Association,
1966), p. 1.
47Ibid.
43Hymes, op. cit . , p. 8.
49Martin Deutsch. "Social Intervention and Malleability of the Child. "
A paper read at the Annual School of Education Conference, Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York, 1965, p. 9.
50Abraham Maslow, as quoted by R. C. Orem (ed.). Montessori for the
Disdvantaged . (New York: Capricorn Books, 1968), pp. 21-23.
54Hymes, op. cit.
,
p. 5.
52Joan Ganz Cooney. "Potential Uses of Television for Preschool
Education." (New York: Children's Television Workshop, 1968), p. 5.
5
3
Ibid., p. 7.
54Ibid . . p. 13.
Jerome Bruner, in Cooney, Ibid.
56 Joan Ganz Cooney. "Television for Preschool Children—A Proposal. "
(New York: Children's Television Workshop, 1968), p. 7.
135
CHAPTER III — FOOTNOTES
^Gerald Lesser. "The Experience of Sesame Street," HarvardEducational Review . May 1972, Vol. 42, No. 2, p. 233.
2Samuel Ball and Gerri Ann Bogatz. Summary of the Major Findingsin the First Year of Sesame Street: An Evaluation. (Princeton, N. J. :
Educational Testing Service, October, 1970), p. 1.
3Ibid.
,
P. 3-4.
4Ibid.
,
p. 4.
5Ibid.
,
P. 5.
6Ibid.
,
p. 17.
7 Ibid.
,
P. 8.
8Ibid.
,
P. 9.
9 Ibid.
,
P- 9.
10 Ibid.
,
P. 10.
HGerri Ann Bogatz and Samuel Ball. Sesame Street Two. (New York:
Children's Television Workshop, 1971), p. 9.
12"Network Children's Programming: A Content Analysis of Black and
Minority Treatment on Children's TV. " A Study for Action for Children's TV
by Gilbert Mendelson and Morrisa Young. (Washington, D.C.
:
Black Efforts
for Soul in TV, August, 1972). Mimeographed.
13T. R. Dominick and Bradley S. Greenberg. "Three Seasons of Blacks
on Television. " Unpublished paper, Michigan State University, May 1970, p. 14.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
136
Bradley S. Greenberg and Gerhard J. Hanneman.the Impact of TV Blacks. " Unpublished paper Michigan State
17BEST, Ibid.
"Racial Attitudes an^University, 1969, p. 10.
-1-® Frank Reiss man.and Row; 1962), p, 14.
The Culturally Deprived Child. (New York: Harper
19Sesame Street Year Two. Vol. I and II. (Princeton, N. J. :
Educational Testing Service, 1970), p. 136.
20Ibid. , p. 137.
137
CHAPTER IV — FOOTNOTES
Lutrelle Horne, "Guiidelines for Better Children's TelevisionProgramming: A Report on the Program Design Features Developed by TheChildren's Television Workshop, " Doctoral Dissertation, School of Education,University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1973,
2Joan Ganz Cooney. "Television for Preschool Children: A Proposal. "
New York: Children's Television Workshop, February 1968, p. 5.
3Ibid.
4Evelyn P. Davis. An interview, July 30, 1973.
5Ibid.
6Ibid.
7Ibid.
^Ibid.
9Ibid.
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139
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
TEST SAMPLES
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
TEST YEAR ONE
SAMPLE: Item 1
Test Procedure :
1. A graphic representation was given to the child.
2. The tester would say aloud, "Here are some pictures
of parts of your body. This is a hand, a foot, a mouth,
and eyes. What do you look with?
150
educational testing service
TEST YEAR ONE
SAMPLE: Item 2
Test Procedure :
1. A graphic representation was given to the child.
2. The tester would say aloud, T, Look at the lady bugs here,
here, here, and here. Which box has five lady bugs ?
This is a test in numerosity, (or how many is five).
Item 2
Look at the ladybugs here, here, here, and here. Whichbox has five ladybugs?
153
Sample: Item 5
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
TEST YEAR ONE
Test Procedure :
1. The child would be asked to look at the picture.
2. The tester would then say, "Here are children in a line.
They are waiting to go to a movie. Which one is last?
This is a test of position relationships (first-last concept).
Item 5
Here are children in line. They are waiting to go toa movie. Tfhich one is last in line?6
155
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
TEST YEAR ONE
Sample: Item 6
Test Procedures :
1* The child was shown the first set of pictures.
2. The tester would then say, ’'This is a picture of grapes,
a banana, and an apple. One picture is missing. Let's
find the one that goes here. ”
3. The child's attention would be called to the second part of
four pictures.
4. The tester would then say, "Here's a telephone, strawberries,
pants and a book. Which one belongs (goes) with the grapes,
banana, and apple ?
This is a test of classification by function.
ITEM 6
157
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
TEST YEAR TWO
Sample Item 2, 4
Test Procedure :
1. Example 2 is an addition test.
2. Example 4 is a test of double classification. It has more than
one right answer.
3. Is a test of Relational Terms; the concept between is tested
here.
158
EXAMPLE 2: ADDITION
RICKY HAS 4 DOGS AND LINDA HAS 2 DOGS.HOW MANY DOGS DO THEY HAVE TOGETHER?
LOOK
AT
THE
SHAPES
HERE.
ONE
SHAPE
LOOK
AT
THE
SHAPES
HERE.
WHICH
OF
THESE
IS
MISSING
IN
THIS
BOX.
GOES
IN
THE
MISSING
BOX?
159
160
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
TEST YEAR TWO
SAMPLE: Item 3
1. The child is asked to look at the picture.
2. The tester would then say, "Here are four cookies. They
are gingerbread men. A little boy eats one cookie. How
many are left?”
161
Item 3
Here are four cookies. They are gingerbread menDoy eats one cookie. How many are left?
A little
i
Q1 Q3
Pretest 37* U3% 51*
04
57*
Posttest 50* 62* 71* 81*
EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE
TEST YEAR TWO
SAMPLE
Test Procedures :
1. Example 3 is a relational term test.
2. The child is asked to look at the picture.
3. The test would then say, "Here are pictures of monkeys and
trees. Where are the monkeys between the trees ?"
HERE
ARE
PICTURES
OF
MONKEYS
AND
TREES.
WHERE
ARE
THE
MONKEYS
BETWEEN
THE
TREES?
163
APPENDIX B
SESAME STREET: FIRST YEAR REPORT CARD
SESAME STREET: FIRST YEAR REPORT CARD
Percentage of Items Answered Correctly by All Disadvantaged Children at Pretest and Posttest
Grand Total
203 Questions
Body Parts Total
32 Questions
Letters Total
58 Questions
Numbers Total
54 Questions
Forms Total
20 Questions
Relational Terms17 Questions
Classification
24 Questions
Naming Capital Letters
16 Questions
Naming Numbers15 Questions
0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50 °/0% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%1 1
% correct
at pretest
% gain at
posttest
: 198 Children
who viewed rarelyor never
Q2 — 197 Children
who viewed 2-3
times a week
Q3 = 172 Children
who viewed 4-5
times a week
= 164 Children
who viewed morethan 5 times a week Cl
10P5
FIGURE 7a
Pretest and Gain on Total Test Score for All Advantaged Children
(by viewing quartiles)N=169
203
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
r
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Pretest
Gain
i
0
Ql Q2 Q3 Q4
APPENDIX C
SELECTED PRETEST AND GAIN SCORES FOR ALL DISADVANTAGED
CHILDREN: Classification, Letters, Numbers
<N
wDuHEn
.
c W<u a;p pX! oi—
1
o•H •'* in
XI U0u rH (I)
II rH'O H* XI<D O-H(J U)
fd U)4-> oC oj a.<d
> -H eT3 ii a<d n gW o-h•H Xc <d
£r—
I
i-"
t—
1
<Tl (1)
< rH -pII (d
P <N U0 O-Hip 'O
cin •H0) 00p o"> in
0 i—i aj
0 II .hw rH +J
O-Hc -p•Hrd — 4-1
o w tn
(U d)
'O rH 4-)
c -H<d -P X
P -P-p id id
w a o(V cr c•p <L)
0) Cnxp C
•H in
£ <u
'O <u c<u •H «H
|
•p k> rHo(D >iT!rH X CD
(1) Xw in
<d
Q
167
168
in
c cu
d> pp orG oi—
l
in
•H43 VO CD
u iH iHII 43
TS ^r-HdJ O in
tn in
<a 0 in g•p a, P Gg CN <d gic r- g> rH 3 g x'O II g G id(0 co-h E Sin OX*H aj
Q g **
i—
1
r-~ a) *i—
1
<X> +J *< iH id
II DP CN-H in g0 O'O P Gm C d) g
43 •H -P -HIN in P X
cu oo in d) id 1
K p m <d PI S0 <H rH
G> o II -Pu CO r—l-r|H O-P *U-i c *
•H -p *id in
U ~d)m-p<L>
Gid •H-P
+j id
-p p <D
in id G<D G d)
-P ttQCD
P tnin0< G <DH GT3 S-hCD d)i—
i
-P •HO > rCd) cu
«—
1
>>cd) 43 in
W '-'id
Q
Pretest
Gain
1 i i i i i i i i i i
oVO
m o in o in o in o in o in
m in m m in in <h >h
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
04
203
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
6 0
50
40
30
20
10
0
it
Figure 2aand Gam on Total Test Score for All Disadvantaged Children
(by viewing auartiles)
N=73l
occ
n
<ncr
i
vo
II II
£
QTqTqTq4
APPENDIX D
THE AGE COHORTS STUDY
FIGURE 10a 17C
The Age Cohorts Study
53-58 months old at time of pretest
53-58 months old at time of posttest
N
N
TotalTestScore
=11U
=101
Q1 Q2 Q3 QU
Pretest
and
Gain
Scores
for
All
Disadvantaged
3r̂
ear
-
01d
Children
(by
quart
iles
)
Rr
GH<0
c03
Q)T.
aP w0)
(1)
P<D GP (TJ
O, d)
3E
03
O CoJ
(1)
r
AA•H ||O 5?
*P QW Wa)
lAHW WH
8 8 SH 8 $ffl HWrr\H
VO f- 0"£> QCM OJ ^ ff>vJ3
CO H OJ OJ H
4 lAO f^COI K> ONp ft
Oto
c•H03
U G03
a)
s
P oU) ca0)
-p
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APPENDIX E
PRETEST AND GAIN ON TOTAL TEST SCORE FOR ALL DISADVANTAGED
3, 4, and 5-YEAR OLD CHILDREN
203J
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
17
FIGURE 3aand Gain on Total Test Score for All
3, 4, and 5 -Year -Old Children(by viewing quartiles)n=127 3 “Year “OldsN=433 4-Year-OldsN=159 5-Year-Olds
Disadvantaged
Pretest
Gain
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q43 Years Old
Ql 02 Q3 Q44 Years Old
Ql Q2 Q3 Q45 Years Old
Pretest
and
Gain
Scores
for
All
Advantaged
Children
(by
quar
tiles)
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appendix f
SESAME STREET PROGRAM PACKAGE
174
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30
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4,
1973
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176
I 'Program Package #52 Pa 9 e 1
Helping Ch ildren_ I,pam
"Everyday Adventures In Science"
Preschoolers have a • .
frlsh"° f
dthingS in thelr — '~t! S
“Lfr°Ut th8
i
Children's early experiences with plants anaanimals makes them very conscj encous about protect- \ing th.e earth's ecology.P
1
seeds and ^atef^eZ^ro*! S* "° 1
apple, or pumpbiu seeds can £ proiVJTili I
limi bqU;LOk rHSUlts have the children plant dried
'•
cartoneail
Tii
0r ’^^ney'-^eans . in an empty milk
of days.y PPy tD See sprouts in a matter -
ers t-"?!°hin9 and
SarlnS fcr pets enables preschool-ers t, learn more about the natural environment.They can listen to stories about the way different
they“have1Ve ' th6Y ® at ' and the klnds of babies ’
,
Children’s early experiences exploring house-hold tools and kitchen chemicals give early intro-ductions to chemistry. Blow into a soap solutionamd make pretty bubbles filled with air.
At snack time, dissolve flavored sugar in wa-ter or powdered cocoa in milk. As the children watchthe change, use the words dissolve and solution . Heatthe water for them so they can observe how it boils, =
and see the vapors in the steam. Put water from thefaucet into a freezer and make ice. Remove the ice
;from the freezer and watch it melt back to a liquid.
;
Early experiences with the basic laws of physicscan be provided through play activities. On theplayground
, the see-saw balance beam is a good ex-ample of comparing weights. Playing with toy carsdown an inclined board or pull a loaded wagon up a ?
steep hill .
Simple concepts basic to each of the sciencescan be found in lots of everyday activities.
t£g*.
4,77
Program Package #52Page 2
El Juego De Las Puntas De Los The Finqertin r,ampDedos — —
^
Ob jetivo: Goal
:
. Hacer hincapie en los. To reinforce the
numeros del 1 al 10. numbers 1 to 10.
Material's
:
Materials Needed:'. Materic 1 para pintar con
. Fingerpaint, paper,los d^f.os. (Fingerpaint) '
number cards 1 to 10.. Papel apropiado.. Tarjetrs con los numeros Low To Do It:
del 1 al 10 impresos. Tell the children that/ they are going to paint.
Como lograrlo
:
a picture called the. Digale a los ninos que ellos "Fingertip Picture"
.
van a pintar un cuadro que .. Show the children these llamara* "El Cuadro de las printed numbers 1 toPuntas de los Dedos". 10 one by one.
. Muestre a los ninos los . Tell the children tonumeros del 1 al 10. print only as many
. Haga que los ninos repitan fingertips the printedlos numeros que usted les number indicates.muestra comenzando con el
/. Repeat with every
numero 1
.
number
.
. Muestre un numero a la vez.Haga que los ninos imprinaan Variations:sobre el papel el dibujo de . Also have the childrentantos puntas de dedos como draw the number shownaparecen en el numero que on the printed card.usted muestra.
!. Repita el procedimiento con Fingerpaint Recipes
cada numero.
i Variaciones:1. Soften a cup of Argo or'
other starch in small
1 . Usted puede pedir a los ninos amount of cold water.
que tambien dibujen el numero Cook over medium high
que la tarjeta impresa muestra. heat, beating continu-
Receta para hacer la pinturaously until the mixture:
bubbles . Remove from
1. Ablande una taza de Argo o
cualquiera otro almidon anadiendo
heat. Add 1 cup Ivoryj
Snow. Beat with an
egg beater. Add
una pequena cantidad de agua fna. powder tempera or food
Anada dos cuartillos de agua coloring for color.
.
Program Package #52
hirviendo al mismo tiempo quebate la mezcla hasta que lamisira hace burbujas. Apague elfuego Anada una copa de IvorySnow. Bata con un batidor.Anada tempera en polvo paraco_oi .^ar
.
2 . Mezcle la tempera con el almidonpara l^rar si se desea pintarenseguida. Use un jabon liquidoque no contenga detergente paraanadir brillo. Eso hara* mas facilla limpieza de las manos.
'
Page 3
2. A non-detergent liquidsoap added to thestarch gives gloss andmakes handwashingeasier.
179
/180
Program Package #52Page 5
GoalLetters
, Letters , Letters
To reinforce recognition of the shaoes of letters. To strengthen the skills needed to learn to write!
Materials. Seeded ;
. Crayons to trace the letters.A letter cut out of cardboard. (use the letter that wastaught on Sesame Street today) (capital or small)A xa .ge piece of paper (butcher or brown wrapping paper) tobe used as a bulletin board.Pieces of fabric and paper (scraps big enough to cut out5"X5" letters)
.
Try to find pretty colors, heavy aid light materials, smoothand r c .ugh textures. You can save gift wrapping paper, brownpaper bags, aluminum foil, sand paper, tissue paper, satinfabric, corduroy, velvet, wool, etc.
How To Do It :
Hang the large piece of paper very low so that the childrencan reach it easily.Choose one letter as the subject of each brown paper posterthat \7ou make
.
Cut that letter out of cardboard. The children will usethis cardboard letter to trace the shapes on the paper andfabric scraps.
. After they have traced a letter, let them cut out theletters and glue them to the wall poster.Some four or five year old children may not have enoughcontrol of their hand muscles to trace. If this activitybecomes too difficult you might make the letters out of thedifferent scraps, and let the children hang them on thewall poster.
. They will enjoy touching the different textures.
181
! Here are twa games that teach concepts of size.
C' needed, just room enough to move around.
!
Tail And SmallGoal :
. To teach differences in size.
Here is a giant who is tall, tall, tall.» up tall.)
Here is an elf who is small, smalD , small,
slowly sink to the floor.)
The elf who is small will try, try, try.
rise.)
To reach the giant who is high, high, highstand tall, stretch, and reach arms high.)
i -1
No props are
(Children stand
(Children
(Children slowly
. (Children
/
4
B: g t Bigger, Biggest
Bo very enthusiastic and it w: 11 spread!
i’ere is a ball, (Make a ball with your thumb andindex finger of right hand.)
r»nd here is a ball. (Make a ball by touching thumbsand index fingers of both hands.)
A great big ball, I see. (Put arms up and touch fingersoverhead to form ball.)
Shall we count them? (Wait fcr children to answer.)Are you ready?One , two, three! (Make all three balls in succession,
slowly counting out loud.)
Teach words and actions at the same time.Say and do the entire four lines as the childrenlxsten.
F^y and do the first line.Have the children repeat. >
Say and do the second line.Have the children repeat.Put the two lines together.Have the children repeat.(Note: You may have to do this several times.)
Eventually they should be able to say and do the four
lines with you.
(Note: It is possible to use this teaching patternwith other "Finger Plays" and songs.
PROGRAM PACKAGE #52Page 8
Number SoundsGoal ;
• Counting from 1-12.J'° deVel°P the ability to listen carefully.
Materials needed:• Pa empty candy box
r welve buttons (color and size not important)
Hov.’ to do it :
Let the children count the buttons as you put them intne box.As you shake the box, say: "This is the sound oftwelve buttons."Empty the whole box and say: "This is the sound of nobuttons in the box." —Add one button. Say: "This is the sound of onebutton . " 1
As you add each button, count and ask the children howmany buttons are in the box.
184
Make "before" and "after'-' cards. For example,
one "before" card could have a picture of a raw
potato, the "after" card could have a picture of
cooked french fries, ether examples could be:
a cow and a carton of milk
a baby and an adult
a sheep and a wool sweater
a cow and a steak
a tree and a wooden table
;
i
i
I
Spread the cards on the table or the floor and have
all the children gather around you. Pick up one
card and ask one of the children to find a card
that goes with this one. Ask, "Why do they belong
together?"Give each of the children a chance to pick up a
card and tell you why the two cards match.
Be sure to go over the steps that were taken to
change the object from its original form.
185
PROGRAM PACKAGE #52 Page 10
GoalMaking Sandwiches For Snack
To understand the meaning o the word between
Materials Needed:Two slices of bread for ever^ four children(each child will have a quarter of the sandwich)Sandwich fillers (peanut butter, jelly, cheese,meat)A knife to cut the sandwichesA plastic knife or spoon for. each child to spread
the sandwich filler (optional)
How To Do It:
. Around snack time, lay out all the things that you
are going to use for sandwich making. Ask the
children, "What kind of snack can we make for
lunch?"
. Accept any answer that is something you can eat.
. Ask the children, "How do you make a sandwich?
Where does the bread belong? Where do I put the
jelly? What do I do with the other slice of bread?"
. Continue using the word between when talking to
the children about the placement of the bread and
the sandwich fillers.
. Look for magazine pictures of other kinds of
sandwiches. Ask the children, "What kind of meat
is between the two slices of bread?"
jPROGRAM PACKAGE #52 Page 11
Body Parts
Goal :
. To teach body parts.
How To Do It :
. As you say this rhyme, run ycur hand down from
arm, nose, head, to toes.
Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum
Fee, fi, fo, fum.
Measure my arm,
Measure my nose,
Measure myself way down to i.y toes.
(If your children already know the basic body parts,
(feet, arms, head) be more specific. This rhyme
teaches the specific parts of the head.)
My Head
This is the circle that is my head.
(Make large circle with both hands.)
This is my mouth with which words are said.
(Point to mouth.)
This is my nose that's part of me.
(Point to nose.)
This is the hair that grows on my head.
(Point to hair.)
This is my hat all pretty and red.
(Place hands on head, fingers pointing up and
touch ing .
)
This is the feather so bright and gay.
(Extend index finger upward alongside of head.)
PROGRAM PACKAGE #52 Page 1 2
"Tres De Estas Cosas"Objetivr :
. Zvovender a agrupar objetos de i -uerdo con su forma.
Mater
i
a les Neccsar.ios :
. Usar los dibujos que aqui aparecen.
Como iigrarlo ;
. Pedir a los ninos que digan los nombres de los
obietos que aparecen en los dibujos.
. Guiar a los ninos a decidir cual de los cuatro^
objetos en los dibujos no perterece con los demas.
"Three of These Things"
Goal 'i
. To learn how to sort objects by form.
Materials needed :
. Use the drawings shown here.
How to do it:~ Ask the children to tell the names of the objects
in the drawings.
Guide the children in deciding which of the objects
in these pictures does not belong with the others.
Program Package; #52 Page 1
4
188
Materials Needed
Activity Page Nunoer
El Juego De Las Puntas De Los Dedos2
. Material para pintar con los dedos (Fingerpaint)
.
. Papel apropiado.
. Tarjetas con los numeros del 1 al 10 impresos.
The Fingertip Game '
2. Fingerpaint, paper, number cards 1 to 10, non-
deteryoat liquid soap (optional)
.
Letter Sound Loxes. A shoebox with the small and capital Letter to be
taught, written on the outside in large, dark,
letters
.
. Collect pictures or familiar things from home
whose names begin with the letter sound.
Letters, Letters, Letters
. Crayons
. A letter cut out of cardboard.
. A large piece of paper for a bulletin board.
. Pieces "f fabric and paper.
Tall and Small
. None
Tres De Estas Cosas“ Usar los dibujos que agui aparecen.
Three Of These Things“ Use the drawings shown here.
Body Parts Rhymes
. None
Making Sandwiches For Snack“ Two slices of bread for every four children (each
will have a quarter of the sandwich) .
Sandwich fillers (peanut butter, jelly, cheese,
meat)
.
A knife to cut the sandwiches.
A plastic knife or spoon for each child to spread
the sandwich filler.
About Beginnings
. Magazine pictures
own pictures on.
. Glue or paste.
(or crayons and paints to make your
4
5
6
12
12
11
10
9
Program Package #52 Page 15
189
Big, Bigger, Biggest. None
Number Sounds. An empty candy box
.
* Twelve buttons (color and size not
important.
8
